Job 24

¹Why are not times of judgment kept by the Almighty , and why do those who know him never see his days ?

²Some move landmarks ; they seize flocks and pasture them.

³They drive away the donkey of the fatherless ; they take the widow’s ox for a pledge .

⁴They thrust the poor off the road ; the poor of the earth all hide themselves.

⁵Behold , like wild donkeys in the desert the poor go out to their toil , seeking game ; the wasteland yields food for their children .

⁶They gather their fodder in the field , and they glean the vineyard of the wicked man .

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 lack of shelter .

⁹(There are those who snatch the fatherless child from the breast , and they take a pledge against the poor .)

¹⁰They go about naked , without clothing ; hungry , they carry the sheaves ;

¹¹among the olive rows of the wicked they make oil ; they tread the winepresses , but suffer thirst .

¹²From out of the city the dying groan , and the soul of the wounded cries for help; yet God charges no one with wrong .

¹³There are those who rebel against the light , who are not acquainted with its ways , and do not stay in its paths .

¹⁴The murderer rises before it is light , that he may kill the poor and needy , and in the night he is like a thief .

¹⁵The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight , saying , No eye will see me; and he veils 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 .

¹⁸You say, Swift are they on the face of the waters ; their portion is cursed in the land ; 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 .

²¹They wrong the barren , 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 , and his eyes are upon their ways .

²⁴They are exalted a little while , and then are gone ; they are brought low and gathered up like all others; 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 ?