איוב, פרק כ״ד, פסוק ט״ז

The secret world of nighttime criminals operates far from the eyes of society, completely reversing the normal order of life. Choosing the cover of darkness is not merely a tactical necessity for committing crimes; it reflects a deep fear of exposure and a profound detachment from God.

The primary approach among commentators is that these individuals are weak thieves who lack the strength to commit open robbery during daylight hours. Instead, they exploit the darkness to break into homes. An alternative perspective suggests that these criminals are not breaking into the homes of others, but rather digging secret underground tunnels and hideouts for themselves. They use these hidden spaces to move about unseen, entering and exiting exclusively under the cover of night [רמב״ן]. However, this idea faces the critique that if a tunnel lacks a visible opening, there would be no logical reason to actively seal or hide it during the day [תקוות אנוש].

The daytime behavior of these thieves involves careful concealment and planning. One perspective explains that during the daylight hours, the thieves lock themselves inside their homes to avoid being recognized, or they work to cover up the breaches they made the previous night so their plots remain undiscovered [רש״י, מצודת דוד, שטיינזלץ]. Another line of thought focuses on scheming and scouting. Rather than hiding, the thieves use the daytime to survey neighborhoods and mark specific houses targeted for robbery, returning at night to execute their plans [מלבי״ם, תקוות אנוש]. Ancient sages even described a method where thieves would smear target homes with fragrant oil during the day, allowing them to locate the houses by scent in the pitch black of night. In this highly coordinated effort, a single thief might break into multiple homes under the cover of darkness, relying on the targets previously marked by his partners during the day [אלשיך].

Ultimately, these criminals live in complete detachment from the day. They do not experience sunlight, remaining locked away in their hideouts and viewing the light itself as a harmful force to be avoided. Beyond the physical act of hiding, this behavior carries a deep theological flaw. A thief who meticulously hides from human eyes in the dark is effectively denying Divine providence. He operates out of a calculated heresy, believing that if people cannot see him, God cannot see him either. This mindset makes his offense particularly severe; he invests immense effort to conceal his crimes from flesh and blood, yet completely ignores the reality that God watches everything and that nothing is hidden from Him [אלשיך].