Job 24

24“Why does the Almighty not set times^y for judgment?^z

Why must those who know him look in vain for such days?^a

²There are those who move boundary stones;^b

they pasture flocks they have stolen.^c

³They drive away the orphan’s donkey

and take the widow’s ox in pledge.^d

⁴They thrust the needy^e from the path

and force all the poor^f of the land into hiding.^g

⁵Like wild donkeys^h in the desert,

the poor go about their laborⁱ of foraging food;

the wasteland^j provides food for their children.

⁶They gather fodder^k in the fields

and glean in the vineyards^l of the wicked.^m

⁷Lacking clothes, they spend the night naked;

they have nothing to cover themselves in the cold.ⁿ

⁸They are drenched^o by mountain rains

and hug^p the rocks for lack of shelter.^q

⁹The fatherless^r child is snatched^s from the breast;

the infant of the poor is seized^t for a debt.^u

¹⁰Lacking clothes, they go about naked;^v

they carry the sheaves,^w but still go hungry.

¹¹They crush olives among the terraces^a;

they tread the winepresses,^x yet suffer thirst.^y

¹²The 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

¹⁴When daylight is gone, the murderer rises up,

kills^d the poor and needy,^e

and in the night steals forth like a thief.^f

¹⁵The eye of the adulterer^g watches for dusk;^h

he thinks, ‘No eye will see me,’ⁱ

and he keeps his face concealed.

¹⁶In the dark, thieves break into houses,^j

but by day they shut themselves in;

they want nothing to do with the light.^k

¹⁷For all of them, midnight is their morning;

they make friends with the terrors^l 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

¹⁹As heat and drought snatch away the melted snow,^r

so the grave^s snatches away those who have sinned.

²⁰The womb forgets them,

the worm^t feasts on them;^u

the wicked are no longer remembered^v

but are broken like a tree.^w

²¹They prey on the barren and childless woman,

and to the widow they show no kindness.^x

²²But God drags away the mighty by his power;^y

though they become established,^z they have no assurance of life.^a

²³He may let them rest in a feeling of security,^b

but his eyes^c are on their ways.^d

²⁴For 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