JOB 24
[1] “Why are not times of judgment kept by the Almighty,
and why do those who know him never see his days?
[2] Some move landmarks;
they seize flocks and pasture them.
[3] They drive away the donkey of the fatherless;
they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
[4] They thrust the poor off the road;
the poor of the earth all hide themselves.
[5] Behold, like wild donkeys in the desert
the poor go out to their toil, seeking game;
the wasteland yields food for their children.
[6] They gather their fodder in the field,
and they glean the vineyard 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 rain of the mountains
and 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 carry the sheaves;
[11] among the olive rows of the wicked they make oil;
they tread the winepresses, but suffer thirst.
[12] From out of the city the dying groan,
and the soul of the wounded cries for help;
yet God charges no one with wrong.
[13] “There are those who rebel 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 may kill the poor and needy,
and in the night he is like a thief.
[15] The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight,
saying, ‘No eye will see me’;
and he veils his face.
[16] In the dark they dig through houses;
by day they shut themselves up;
they do not know the light.
[17] For deep darkness is morning to all of them;
for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.
[18] “You say, ‘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 Sheol those who have sinned.
[20] The womb forgets them;
the worm finds them sweet;
they are no longer remembered,
so wickedness is broken like a tree.’
[21] “They wrong the barren, childless woman,
and do no good to the widow.
[22] Yet God 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 eyes are upon their ways.
[24] They are exalted a little while, and then are gone;
they are brought low and gathered up like all others;
they are cut off like the heads of grain.
[25] If it is not so, who will prove me a liar
and show that there is nothing in what I say?” (ESV)
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