The interpretation timeline

Job 24:5

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

2 Patristic · 1 Catholic

Job 24:5 · Douay-Rheims
“Others like wild asses in the desert go forth to their work: by watching for a prey they get bread for their children.”
Patristic before A.D. 750
407
A.D.
John Chrysostom Patristic
A.D. 347–407
“"And they have departed," he says, "like asses in the field," that is, they have scorned everybody and have mocked everyone. However, nobody commits any injustice against them and does not ill-treat them.”
197 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
604
A.D.
Gregory the Great Patristic
c. A.D. 540–604
“Others as wild asses in the desert go forth to their work. Watching for a prey, they provide bread for their children. For the 'onager' is a wild ass; and in this place Heretics are rightly likened to 'wild asses,' in that being let loose in their pleasures, they are strange to the fetters of faith and reason. Hence it is written; A wild ass used to the wilderness that snuffeth up the wind of his love at his pleasure. For he is a wild ass used to the wilderness, who whilst he does not cultivate the ground of his heart with excellence of discipline, there dwells, where there is no fruit. Since he 'snuffeth up the wind of his love at his pleasure,' in that the things that from the desire of knowledge he conceives in his mind, are efficacious to puff up but not to edify. Against whom it is said, Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. Hence here too the words are suitably brought in; they go forth to their work. For it is not the work of God, but their own work that they do, whereas they follow not right doctrines, but their own desires. For it is written, He that walketh in a perfect way, he served me. So he that does not walk in a perfect way, serves himself more than the Lord. They 'watch for a prey,' who are always trying to seize the words of the righteous according to their own perception, that by them they may provide the bread of error for evil minded children. Of which some bread it is said in Solomon, in the words of the woman that bears the figure of heretical wickedness, Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”
Source
670 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Scholastic c. 1100 – 1500
1274
A.D.
Thomas Aquinas Catholic
1225–1274
“However, there are some who do not harm others fraudulently like those already described, but through open violence. These men rush to do evil like people who are not restrained by the discipline of the law. He says about these men, "Others like the wild asses in the desert," the wild asses of the forests who are not domesticated to the service of men, "go forth to their work," to robbery like one who is enthusiastic for his profession. So he says, "and they keep their eyes open for plunder," to snatch it, "and they prepare bread for their children," that is, for their own children from what they have stolen.”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.