Job 24
24 “Why does the Almighty not set timesy for judgment?z
Why must those who know him look in vain for such days?a
2 There are those who move boundary stones;b
they pasture flocks they have stolen.c
3 They drive away the orphan’s donkey
and take the widow’s ox in pledge.d
4 They thrust the needye from the path
and force all the poorf of the land into hiding.g
5 Like wild donkeysh in the desert,
the poor go about their labori of foraging food;
the wastelandj provides food for their children.
6 They gather fodderk in the fields
and glean in the vineyardsl of the wicked.m
7 Lacking clothes, they spend the night naked;
they have nothing to cover themselves in the cold.n
8 They are drenchedo by mountain rains
and hugp the rocks for lack of shelter.q
9 The fatherlessr child is snatcheds from the breast;
the infant of the poor is seizedt for a debt.u
10 Lacking clothes, they go about naked;v
they carry the sheaves,w but still go hungry.
11 They crush olives among the terracesa;
they tread the winepresses,x yet suffer thirst.y
12 The groans of the dying rise from the city,
and the souls of the wounded cry out for help.z
But God charges no one with wrongdoing.a
13 “There are those who rebel against the light,b
who do not know its ways
or stay in its paths.c
14 When daylight is gone, the murderer rises up,
and in the night steals forth like a thief.f
15 The eye of the adultererg watches for dusk;h
he thinks, ‘No eye will see me,’i
and he keeps his face concealed.
16 In the dark, thieves break into houses,j
but by day they shut themselves in;
they want nothing to do with the light.k
17 For all of them, midnight is their morning;
they make friends with the terrorsl of darkness.m
18 “Yet they are foamn on the surface of the water;o
their portion of the land is cursed,p
so that no one goes to the vineyards.q
19 As heat and drought snatch away the melted snow,r
so the graves snatches away those who have sinned.
the wicked are no longer rememberedv
but are broken like a tree.w
21 They prey on the barren and childless woman,
and to the widow they show no kindness.x
22 But God drags away the mighty by his power;y
though they become established,z they have no assurance of life.a
23 He may let them rest in a feeling of security,b
but his eyesc are on their ways.d
24 For a little while they are exalted, and then they are gone;e
they are brought low and gathered up like all others;f
they are cut off like heads of grain.g
25 “If this is not so, who can prove me false
and reduce my words to nothing?”h