Job 24

¹“Why are times not kept by the Almighty,

and why do those who know him never see his days?

²The wicked remove landmarks;

they seize flocks and pasture them.

³They drive away the donkey of the orphan;

they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.

⁴They thrust the needy off the road;

the poor of the earth all hide themselves.

⁵Like wild asses in the desert

they go out to their toil,

scavenging in the wasteland

food for their young.

⁶They reap in a field not their own

and they glean in the vineyard of the wicked.

⁷They lie all night naked, without clothing,

and have no covering in the cold.

⁸They are wet with the rain of the mountains,

and cling to the rock for want of shelter.

⁹“There are those who snatch the orphan child from the breast,

and take as a pledge the infant of the poor.

¹⁰They go about naked, without clothing;

though hungry, they carry the sheaves;

¹¹between their terraces they press out oil;

they tread the wine presses, but suffer thirst.

¹²From the city the dying groan,

and the throat of the wounded cries for help;

yet God pays no attention to their prayer.

¹³“There are those who rebel against the light,

who are not acquainted with its ways,

and do not stay in its paths.

¹⁴The murderer rises at dusk

to kill the poor and needy,

and in the night is like a thief.

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

saying, ‘No eye will see me’;

and he disguises his face.

¹⁶In the dark they dig through houses;

by day they shut themselves up;

they do not know the light.

¹⁷For deep darkness is morning to all of them;

for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.

¹⁸“Swift are they on the face of the waters;

their portion in the land is cursed;

no treader turns toward their vineyards.

¹⁹Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters;

so does Sheol those who have sinned.

²⁰The womb forgets them;

the worm finds them sweet;

they are no longer remembered;

so wickedness is broken like a tree.

²¹“They harm the childless woman,

and do no good to the widow.

²²Yet God prolongs the life of the mighty by his power;

they rise up when they despair of life.

²³He gives them security, and they are supported;

his eyes are upon their ways.

²⁴They are exalted a little while, and then are gone;

they wither and fade like the mallow;

they are cut off like the heads of grain.

²⁵If it is not so, who will prove me a liar,

and show that there is nothing in what I say?”