The Apparent Indifference of God
24:1 “Why are times not appointed by1 the Almighty?2
Why do those who know him not see his days?
24:2 Men3 move boundary stones;
they seize the flock and pasture them.4
24:3 They drive away the orphan’s donkey;
they take the widow’s ox as a pledge.
24:4 They turn the needy from the pathway,
and the poor of the land hide themselves together.5
24:5 Like6 wild donkeys in the desert
seeking diligently for food;
the wasteland provides9 food for them
and for their children.
24:6 They reap fodder10 in the field,
and glean11 in the vineyard of the wicked.
24:7 They spend the night naked because they lack clothing;
they have no covering against the cold.
24:8 They are soaked by mountain rains
and huddle12 in the rocks because they lack shelter.
24:9 The fatherless child is snatched13 from the breast,14
the infant of the poor is taken as a pledge.15
24:10 They go about naked, without clothing,
and go hungry while they carry the sheaves.16
24:11 They press out the olive oil between the rows of olive trees;17
they tread the winepresses while they are thirsty.18
24:12 From the city the dying19 groan,
and the wounded20 cry out for help,
but God charges no one with wrongdoing.21
24:13 There are those22 who rebel against the light;
they do not know its ways
and they do not stay on its paths.
24:14 Before daybreak23 the murderer rises up;
he kills the poor and the needy;
in the night he is24 like a thief.25
24:15 And the eye of the adulterer watches for the twilight,
thinking,26 ‘No eye can see me,’
and covers his face with a mask.
24:16 In the dark the robber27 breaks into houses,28
but by day they shut themselves in;29
they do not know the light.30
24:17 For all of them,31 the morning is to them
like deep darkness;
they are friends with the terrors of darkness.
24:18 32 “You say,33 ‘He is foam34 on the face of the waters;35
their portion of the land is cursed
so that no one goes to their vineyard.36
24:19 The drought as well as the heat carry away
the melted snow;37
so the grave38 takes away those who have sinned.39
24:20 The womb40 forgets him,
the worm feasts on him,
no longer will he be remembered.
Like a tree, wickedness will be broken down.
24:21 He preys on41 the barren and childless woman,42
and does not treat the widow well.
24:22 But God43 drags off the mighty by his power;
when God44 rises up against him, he has no faith in his life.45
24:23 God46 may let them rest in a feeling of security,47
but he is constantly watching48 all their ways.49
24:24 They are exalted for a little while,
and then they are gone,50
they are brought low51 like all others,
and gathered in,52
and like a head of grain they are cut off.’53
24:25 “If this is not so, who can prove me a liar
and reduce my words to nothing?”54
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