Job 24

¹Why are times not laid up by the Almighty?

And why do not they that know him see his days?

²There are that remove the landmarks;

They violently take away flocks, and feed them.

³They drive away the ass of the fatherless;

They take the widow’s ox for a pledge.

⁴They turn the needy out of the way:

The poor of the earth all hide themselves.

⁵Behold, as wild asses in the desert

They go forth to their work, seeking diligently for food;

The wilderness yieldeth them bread for their children.

⁶They cut their provender in the field;

And they glean the vintage of the wicked.

⁷They lie all night naked without clothing,

And have no covering in the cold.

⁸They are wet with the showers of the mountains,

And embrace the rock for want of a shelter.

⁹There are that pluck the fatherless from the breast,

And take a pledge of the poor;

¹⁰So that they go about naked without clothing,

And being hungry they carry the sheaves.

¹¹They make oil within the walls of these men;

They tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst.

¹²From out of the populous city men groan,

And the soul of the wounded crieth out:

Yet God regardeth not the folly.

¹³These are of them that rebel against the light;

They know not the ways thereof,

Nor abide in the paths thereof.

¹⁴The murderer riseth with the light;

He killeth the poor and needy;

And in the night he is as a thief.

¹⁵The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight,

Saying, No eye shall see me:

And he disguiseth his face.

¹⁶In the dark they dig through houses:

They shut themselves up in the day-time;

They know not the light.

¹⁷For the morning is to all of them as thick darkness;

For they know the terrors of the thick darkness.

¹⁸Swiftly they pass away upon the face of the waters;

Their portion is cursed in the earth:

They turn not into the way of the vineyards.

¹⁹Drought and heat consume the snow waters:

So doth Sheol those that have sinned.

²⁰The womb shall forget him;

The worm shall feed sweetly on him;

He shall be no more remembered;

And unrighteousness shall be broken as a tree.

²¹He devoureth the barren that beareth not,

And doeth not good to the widow.

²²Yet God preserveth the mighty by his power:

He riseth up that hath no assurance of life.

²³God giveth them to be in security, and they rest thereon;

And his eyes are upon their ways.

²⁴They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone;

Yea, 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.

²⁵And if it be not so now, who will prove me a liar,

And make my speech nothing worth?