Job 24

1 “Why are ^anot times of judgment ^bkept by the Almighty,
and why do those who know him never see his ^cdays?
2 Some move ^dlandmarks;
they seize flocks and pasture them.
3 They drive away the donkey of the fatherless;
they ^etake the widow’s ox for a pledge.
4 They ^fthrust the poor off the road;
the poor of the earth ^gall hide themselves.
5 Behold, like wild donkeys in the desert
the poor ^{▼▼Hebrew they} ⁱgo out to their toil, ^jseeking 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 ^llie all night naked, without clothing,
and have no covering in the cold.
8 They are wet with the rain of the mountains
and ^mcling 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 ⁿcarry 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 ^pthe wounded cries for help;
yet God charges no one with ^qwrong.
13 “There are those who rebel ^ragainst 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 ^smay kill the poor and needy,
and in the night he is like a thief.
15 The eye of the adulterer also waits for ^tthe twilight,
saying, ‘No ^ueye will see me’;
and he veils his face.
16 In the dark they ^vdig through houses;
by day they shut themselves up;
they do not know the light.
17 For ^wdeep 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 ^ySheol those who have sinned.
20 The womb forgets them;
the worm finds them sweet;
they are ^zno longer remembered,
so wickedness is broken like ^aaa 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 ^aceyes are upon their ways.
24 They are exalted ^ada little while, and then ^aeare gone;
they are brought low and gathered up like all others;
they are ^afcut off like the heads of grain.
25 If it is ^agnot so, who will prove me a liar
and show that there is nothing in what I say?”