Job 24

Job Complains of Violence on the Earth

24“Since ^atimes are not hidden from the Almighty,

Why do those who know Him see not His ^bdays?

²“Some remove ^clandmarks;

They seize flocks violently and feed on them;

³They drive away the donkey of the fatherless;

They ^dtake the widow’s ox as a pledge.

⁴They push the needy off the road;

All the ^epoor of the land are forced to hide.

⁵Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert,

They go out to their work, searching for food.

The wilderness yields food for them and for their children.

⁶They gather their fodder in the field

And glean in the vineyard of the wicked.

⁷They ^fspend the night naked, without clothing,

And have no covering in the cold.

⁸They are wet with the showers of the mountains,

And ^ghuddle around the rock for want of shelter.

⁹“Some snatch the fatherless from the breast,

And take a pledge from the poor.

¹⁰They cause the poor to go naked, without ^hclothing;

And they take away the sheaves from the hungry.

¹¹They press out oil within their walls,

And tread winepresses, yet suffer thirst.

¹²The dying groan in the city,

And the souls of the wounded cry out;

Yet God does not charge them with wrong.

¹³“There are those who rebel against the light;

They do not know its ways

Nor abide in its paths.

¹⁴ⁱThe murderer rises with the light;

He kills the poor and needy;

And in the night he is like a thief.

^15jThe eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight,

^kSaying, ‘No eye will see me’;

And he ¹disguises his face.

¹⁶In the dark they break into houses

Which they marked for themselves in the daytime;

^lThey do not know the light.

¹⁷For the morning is the same to them as the shadow of death;

If someone recognizes them,

They are in the terrors of the shadow of death.

¹⁸“They should be swift on the face of the waters,

Their portion should be cursed in the earth,

So that no one would turn into the way of their vineyards.

¹⁹As drought and heat ²consume the snow waters,

So ³the grave consumes those who have sinned.

²⁰The womb should forget him,

The worm should feed sweetly on him;

^mHe should be remembered no more,

And wickedness should be broken like a tree.

²¹For he ⁴preys on the barren who do not bear,

And does no good for the widow.

²²“But God draws the mighty away with His power;

He rises up, but no man is sure of life.

²³He gives them security, and they rely on it;

Yet ⁿHis eyes are on their ways.

²⁴They are exalted for a little while,

Then they are gone.

They are brought low;

They are ⁵taken out of the way like all others;

They dry out like the heads of grain.

²⁵“Now if it is not so, who will prove me a liar,

And make my speech worth nothing?”