Job 24

Job’s Eighth Speech, Continued

1 “Why are not times kept by Shaddai,
and why do not those who know him see his days?
2 They ^{▼▼Or “Some” (NASU, ESV) or “Men” (NIV, NET)} remove border stones;
they seize flocks, and they pasture them.
3 They drive away the donkey of orphans;
they take the widow’s ox as a pledge.
4 They thrust the poor off the road;
the needy of the earth hide themselves together. ^{▼▼Or “altogether”}
5 “Look, like wild donkeys in the desert
they ^{▼▼That is, the poor} go out to their labor as searchers for the prey;
the wilderness is ^{▼▼Or “provides”} ⌞their⌟ ^{▼▼Hebrew “for their”} food for the young.
6 They reap their ^{▼▼Hebrew “his”} fodder in the field,
and they glean in the vineyard of the wicked.
7 They spend the night naked, ⌞without⌟ ^{▼▼Literally “from not”} clothing,
and they have no garment in the cold.
8 They are wet from the rainstorm of the mountains, ^{▼▼Or “from the mountain rainstorm”}
and they cling to the rock ⌞without⌟ ^{▼▼Literally “from not”} refuge.
9 “They ^{▼▼That is, those who oppress the poor} snatch the orphan from the breast,
and they take a pledge against the needy. ^{▼▼Or “And they take the child of the needy as a pledge”}
10 They ^{▼▼That is, the poor} go about naked, without clothing,
and hungry, they carry the sheaves. ^{▼▼Or “and they carry the sheaves though hungry”}
11 Between their terraces they press out oil;
they tread the presses, but ^{▼▼Hebrew “and”} they are thirsty.
12 From the city people groan,
and the throat ^{▼▼Or “soul,” or “inner self”} of the wounded cries for help;
yet ^{▼▼Hebrew “and”} God does not ⌞regard it as unseemly⌟. ^{▼▼Literally “he puts offensiveness”}
13 “Those are among the ones rebelling against the light;
they do not recognize his ways,
and they do not stay in his paths.
14 ⌞At dusk⌟ ^{▼▼Literally “At the light”} the murderer rises;
he kills the needy and the poor,
and in the night he is like a ^{▼▼Or “the”} thief.
15 And the eye of the adulterer waits for dusk,
saying, ⌞‘No eye will see me,’⌟ ^{▼▼Literally “ ‘An eye will not see me’ ”}
and he places a covering on his face.
16 He digs through houses in the darkness;
by day they shut themselves in—
they do not know the light
17 because morning likewise is to them deep darkness;
indeed, they know about the terrors of deep darkness.
18 “He himself ^{▼▼Emphatic personal pronoun} is swift on the water’s surface;
their portion is cursed in the land.
⌞No one turns toward the path of their vineyards⌟. ^{▼▼Literally “He does not turn toward the path of the vineyard”}
19 Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters,
like Sheol snatches away those ^{▼▼Or “they/them”} who have sinned.
20 The womb forgets him.
The maggot feasts on him until he is no longer remembered,
and wickedness is broken like a ^{▼▼Or “the”} tree.
21 He feeds on the barren, who does not have a child,
and does no good to the widow.
22 Yet ^{▼▼Hebrew “And”} he ^{▼▼The probable antecedent is God} carries off the tyrants by his strength;
if he rises up, then ^{▼▼Hebrew “and”} he ^{▼▼The antecedent of the singular here probably changes to the wicked person} cannot be certain of life. ^{▼▼Hebrew “the life”}
23 He ^{▼▼The probable antecedent is God} gives security to him, and he is ^{▼▼Or “they are”} supported,
but ^{▼▼Hebrew “and”} his eyes are upon their ways.
24 They are exalted a little while, then ^{▼▼Literally “and”} ⌞they are gone⌟. ^{▼▼Literally “he is not”}
And they are brought low; they are cut off like all others,
and like the heads of grain they wither away.
25 “And if it is not so, then who can prove me a liar
and reduce my word to nothing?”