Job 24

Job Asks Why the Wicked Are Not Punished ¹“Why doesn’t the Almighty bring the wicked to judgment? Why must the godly wait for him in vain? ² Evil people steal land by moving the boundary markers. They steal livestock and put them in their own pastures. ³ They take the orphan’s donkey and demand the widow’s ox as security for a loan. ⁴ The poor are pushed off the path; the needy must hide together for safety. ⁵ Like wild donkeys in the wilderness, the poor must spend all their time looking for food, searching even in the desert for food for their children. ⁶ They harvest a field they do not own, and they glean in the vineyards of the wicked. ⁷ All night they lie naked in the cold, without clothing or covering. ⁸ They are soaked by mountain showers, and they huddle against the rocks for want of a home.

⁹“The wicked snatch a widow’s child from her breast, taking the baby as security for a loan. ¹⁰ The poor must go about naked, without any clothing. They harvest food for others while they themselves are starving. ¹¹ They press out olive oil without being allowed to taste it, and they tread in the winepress as they suffer from thirst. ¹² The groans of the dying rise from the city, and the wounded cry for help, yet God ignores their moaning.

¹³“Wicked people rebel against the light. They refuse to acknowledge its ways or stay in its paths. ¹⁴ The murderer rises in the early dawn to kill the poor and needy; at night he is a thief. ¹⁵ The adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No one will see me then.’ He hides his face so no one will know him. ¹⁶ Thieves break into houses at night and sleep in the daytime. They are not acquainted with the light. ¹⁷ The black night is their morning. They ally themselves with the terrors of the darkness.

¹⁸“But they disappear like foam down a river. Everything they own is cursed, and they are afraid to enter their own vineyards. ¹⁹ The grave Hebrew Sheol. consumes sinners just as drought and heat consume snow. ²⁰ Their own mothers will forget them. Maggots will find them sweet to eat. No one will remember them. Wicked people are broken like a tree in the storm. ²¹ They cheat the woman who has no son to help her. They refuse to help the needy widow.

²²“God, in his power, drags away the rich. They may rise high, but they have no assurance of life. ²³ They may be allowed to live in security, but God is always watching them. ²⁴ And though they are great now, in a moment they will be gone like all others, cut off like heads of grain. ²⁵ Can anyone claim otherwise? Who can prove me wrong?”