Job 24

1 “Why are a not times of judgment b kept by the Almighty,
and why do those who know him never see his c days?
 2 Some move d landmarks;
they seize flocks and pasture them.
 3 They drive away the donkey of the fatherless;
they e take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
 4 They f thrust the poor off the road;
the poor of the earth g all hide themselves.
 5 Behold, like wild donkeys in the desert
the poor ▼
▼ Hebrew they
 i go out to their toil j seeking game;
the wasteland yields food for their children.
 6 They gather their ▼
▼ Hebrew his
 fodder in the field,
and they glean the vineyard of the wicked man.
 7 They l lie all night naked, without clothing,
and have no covering in the cold.
 8 They are wet with the rain of the mountains
and m cling to the rock for lack of shelter.
 9 (There are those who snatch the fatherless child from the breast,
and they take a pledge against the poor.)
 10 They go about naked, without clothing;
hungry, they n carry the sheaves;
 11 among the olive rows of the wicked ▼
▼ Hebrew their olive rows
 they make oil;
they tread the winepresses, but suffer thirst.
 12 From out of the city the dying groan,
and the soul of p the wounded cries for help;
yet God charges no one with q wrong.
 13  “There are those who rebel r against the light,
who are not acquainted with its ways,
and do not stay in its paths.
 14 The murderer rises before it is light,
that he s may kill the poor and needy,
and in the night he is like a thief.
 15 The eye of the adulterer also waits for t the twilight,
saying, ‘No u eye will see me’;
and he veils his face.
 16 In the dark they v dig through houses;
by day they shut themselves up;
they do not know the light.
 17 For w deep darkness is morning to all of them;
for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.
 18  “You say, x ‘Swift are they on the face of the waters;
their portion is cursed in the land;
no treader turns toward their vineyards.
 19 Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters;
so does y Sheol those who have sinned.
 20 The womb forgets them;
the worm finds them sweet;
they are z no longer remembered,
so wickedness is broken like aa a tree.’
 21  “They wrong the barren, childless woman,
and do no good to the widow.
 22 Yet God ▼
▼ Hebrew he
 prolongs the life of the mighty by his power;
they rise up when they despair of life.
 23 He gives them security, and they are supported,
and his ac eyes are upon their ways.
 24 They are exalted ad a little while, and then ae are gone;
they are brought low and gathered up like all others;
they are af cut off like the heads of grain.
 25 If it is ag not so, who will prove me a liar
and show that there is nothing in what I say?”
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