Job 24

“Why does the Almighty not set times^d for judgment?^e

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

There are those who move boundary stones;^g

they pasture flocks they have stolen.^h

They drive away the orphan’s donkey

and take the widow’s ox in pledge.ⁱ

They thrust the needy^j from the path

and force all the poor^k of the land into hiding.^l

Like wild donkeys^m in the desert,

the poor go about their laborⁿ of foraging food;

the wasteland^o provides food for their children.

They gather fodder^p in the fields

and glean in the vineyards^q of the wicked.^r

Lacking clothes, they spend the night naked;

they have nothing to cover themselves in the cold.^s

They are drenched^t by mountain rains

and hug^u the rocks for lack of shelter.^v

The fatherless^w child is snatched^x from the breast;

the infant of the poor is seized^y for a debt.^z

Lacking clothes, they go about naked;^a

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

They crush olives among the terraces;

they tread the winepresses,^c yet suffer thirst.^d

The groans of the dying rise from the city,

and the souls of the wounded cry out for help.^e

But God charges no one with wrongdoing.^f

“There are those who rebel against the light,^g

who do not know its ways

or stay in its paths.^h

When daylight is gone, the murderer rises up,

killsⁱ the poor and needy,^j

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

The eye of the adulterer^l watches for dusk;^m

he thinks, ‘No eye will see me,’ⁿ

and he keeps his face concealed.

In the dark, thieves break into houses,^o

but by day they shut themselves in;

they want nothing to do with the light.^p

For all of them, midnight is their morning;

they make friends with the terrors^q of darkness.^r

“Yet they are foam^s on the surface of the water;^t

their portion of the land is cursed,^u

so that no one goes to the vineyards.^v

As heat and drought snatch away the melted snow,^w

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

The womb forgets them,

the worm^y feasts on them;^z

the wicked are no longer remembered^a

but are broken like a tree.^b

They prey on the barren and childless woman,

and to the widow show no kindness.^c

But God drags away the mighty by his power;^d

though they become established,^e they have no assurance of life.^f

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

but his eyes^h are on their ways.ⁱ

For a little while they are exalted, and then they are gone;^j

they are brought low and gathered up like all others;^k

they are cut off like heads of grain.^l

“If this is not so, who can prove me false

and reduce my words to nothing?”^m