Job 24
1 “Why aren’t times laid up by the Almighty? Why don’t those who know him see his days?
But why have the seasons been hidden from the Lord,
2 There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them.
while the ungodly have passed over the bound, carrying off the flock with the shepherd?
3 They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, and they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
They have led away, the ass of the fatherless, and taken the widow's ox for a pledge.
4 They turn the needy out of the way. The poor of the earth all hide themselves.
They have turned aside the weak from the right way: and the meek of the earth have hidden themselves together.
5 Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, they go out to their work, seeking diligently for food. The wilderness yields them bread for their children.
And they have departed like asses in the field, having gone forth on my account according to their own order: his bread is sweet to [his] little ones.
6 They cut their food in the field. They glean the vineyard of the wicked.
They have reaped a field that was not their own before the time: the poor have laboured in the vineyards of the ungodly without pay and without food.
7 They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.
They have caused many naked to sleep without clothes, and they have taken away the covering of their body.
8 They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter.
They are wet with the drops of the mountains: they have embraced the rock, because they had no shelter.
9 There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor,
They have snatched the fatherless from the breast, and have afflicted the outcast.
10 so that they go around naked without clothing. Being hungry, they carry the sheaves.
And they have wrongfully caused [others] to sleep without clothing, and taken away the morsel of the hungry.
11 They make oil within the walls of these men. They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst.
They have unrighteously laid wait in narrow places, and have not known the righteous way.
12 From out of the populous city, men groan. The soul of the wounded cries out, yet God doesn’t regard the folly.
Who have cast forth [the] poor from the city and their own houses, and the soul of the children has groaned aloud.
13 “These are of those who rebel against the light. They don’t know its ways, nor stay in its paths.
Why then has he not visited these? forasmuch as they were upon the earth, and took no notice, and they knew not the way of righteousness, neither have they walked in their [appointed] paths?
14 The murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy. In the night he is like a thief.
But having known their works, he delivered them into darkness: and in the night one will be as a thief:
15 The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye will see me.’ He disguises his face.
and the eye of the adulterer has watched [for] the darkness, saying, Eye shall not perceive me, and he puts a covering on his face.
16 In the dark they dig through houses. They shut themselves up in the daytime. They don’t know the light.
In darkness he digs through houses: by day they conceal themselves securely: they know not the light.
17 For the morning is to all of them like thick darkness, for they know the terrors of the thick darkness.
For the morning is to them all [as] the shadow of death, for [each] will be conscious of the terror of the shadow of death.
18 “They are foam on the surface of the waters. Their portion is cursed in the earth. They don’t turn into the way of the vineyards.
He is swift on the face of the water: let his portion be cursed on the earth; and let their plants be laid bare.
[Let them be] withered upon the earth; for they have plundered the sheaves of the fatherless. (Sheol h7585)
20 The womb will forget him. The worm will feed sweetly on him. He will be no more remembered. Unrighteousness will be broken as a tree.
Then is his sin brought to remembrance, and he vanishes like a vapor of dew: but let what he has done be recompensed to him, and let every unrighteous one be crushed like rotten wood.
21 He devours the barren who don’t bear. He shows no kindness to the widow.
For he has not treated the barren woman well, and has had no pity on a feeble woman.
22 Yet God preserves the mighty by his power. He rises up who has no assurance of life.
And in wrath he has overthrown the helpless: therefore when he has arisen, [a man] will not feel secure of his own life.
23 God gives them security, and they rest in it. His eyes are on their ways.
When he has fallen sick, let him not hope to recover: but let him perish by disease.
24 They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone. Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.
For his exaltation has hurt many; but he has withered as mallows in the heat, or as an ear of corn falling off of itself from the stalk.
25 If it isn’t so now, who will prove me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?”
But if not, who is he that says I speak falsely, and will make my words of no account?
