| 1 | Why [seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty] does He not set seasons for judgment? Why do those who know Him see not His days [for punishment of the wicked]? |
| 2 | Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks and pasture them [appropriating land and flocks openly]. |
| 3 | They drive away the donkey of the fatherless; they take the widow’s ox for a pledge. |
| 4 | They crowd the poor
and
needy off the road; the poor
and
meek of the earth all hide themselves. |
| 5 | Behold, as wild asses in the desert, [the poor] go forth to their work, seeking diligently for prey
and
food; the wilderness yields them bread for their children [in roots and herbage]. |
| 6 | They reap each one his fodder in a field [that is not his own], and they glean the vintage of the wicked man. |
| 7 | They lie all night naked, without clothing, and have no covering in the cold. |
| 8 | They are wet with the showers of the mountains and cling to the rock for want of shelter. |
| 9 | [The violent men whose wickedness seems unnoticed] pluck the fatherless infants from the breast [to sell or make them slaves], and take [the clothing on] the poor for a pledge, |
| 10 | So that the needy go about naked for lack of clothing, and though hungry, they must carry [but not eat from] the sheaves. |
| 11 | Among the olive rows [of the wicked, the poor] make oil; they tread [the fresh juice of the grape from] the presses, but suffer thirst. |
| 12 | From out of the populous city men groan, and the very life of the wounded cries for help; yet God [seemingly] regards not the wrong done them. |
| 13 | These wrongdoers are of those who rebel against the light; they know not its ways nor stay in its paths. |
| 14 | The murderer rises with the light; he kills the poor and the needy, and in the night he becomes as a thief. |
| 15 | The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me, and he puts a disguise upon his face. |
| 16 | In the dark, they dig through [the penetrable walls of] houses; by day they shut themselves up; they do not know the sunlight. |
| 17 | For midnight is morning to all of them; for they are familiar with the terrors of deep darkness. |
| 18 | [You say] Swiftly such men pass away on the face of the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth; [no treader] turns into their vineyards. |
| 19 | Drought and heat consume the snow waters; so does Sheol (the place of the dead) those who have sinned. |
| 20 | The womb shall forget him, the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered, and unrighteousness shall be broken like a tree [which cannot be healed]. |
| 21 | [The evil man] preys upon the barren, childless woman and does no good to the widow. |
| 22 | Yet [God] prolongs the life of the [wicked] mighty by His power; they rise up when they had despaired of life. |
| 23 | God gives them security, and they rest on it; and His eyes are upon their ways. |
| 24 | They are exalted for a little while, and then are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all others are and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain. |
| 25 | And if this is not so, who will prove me a liar and make my speech worthless? |
Cross references:
-
Job 24:1 : Acts 1:7.
-
Job 24:20 : Prov. 10:7.
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