Job 24

24Why does the Almighty not reserve times for judgment?^u

Why do those who know him never see his days?

²The wicked displace boundary markers.

They steal a flock and provide pasture for it.

³They drive away the donkeys owned by the fatherless^v

and take the widow’s ox as collateral.

⁴They push the needy off the road;

the poor of the land are forced into hiding.^w

⁵Like wild donkeys in the wilderness,

the poor go out to their task of foraging for food;

the desert provides nourishment for their children.

⁶They gather their fodder in the field

and glean the vineyards of the wicked.

⁷Without clothing, they spend the night naked,

having no covering against the cold.^x

⁸Drenched by mountain rains,

they huddle against^A the rocks, shelterless.

⁹The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast;

the nursing child of the poor is seized as collateral.^B

¹⁰Without clothing, they wander about naked.

They carry sheaves but go hungry.^a

¹¹They crush olives in their presses;^C

they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty.

¹²From the city, men^D groan;

the mortally wounded cry for help,

yet God pays no attention to this crime.^b

¹³The wicked are those who rebel against the light.

They do not recognize its ways

or stay on its paths.

¹⁴The murderer rises at dawn

to kill the poor and needy,

and by night he becomes a thief.

¹⁵The adulterer’s eye watches for twilight,

thinking, “No eye will see me,”

and he covers his face.

¹⁶In the dark they break^E into houses;

by day they lock themselves in,^F

never experiencing the light.

¹⁷For the morning is like darkness to them.

Surely they are familiar with the terrors of darkness!

¹⁸They float^G on the surface of the water.

Their section of the land is cursed,

so that they never go to their vineyards.

¹⁹As dry ground and heat snatch away the melted snow,

so Sheol^c steals those who have sinned.

²⁰The womb forgets them;

worms feed on them;

they are remembered^d no more.

So injustice is broken like a tree.

²¹They prey on^H the childless woman who is unable to conceive,

and do not deal kindly with the widow.

²²Yet God drags away^I the mighty by his power;

when he rises up, they have no assurance of life.

²³He gives them a sense of security, so they can rely on it,^e

but his eyes^f watch over their ways.

²⁴They are exalted for a moment, then gone;

they are brought low and shrivel up like everything else.^J

They wither like heads of grain.^g

²⁵If this is not true, then who can prove me a liar^h

and show that my speech is worthless?