24
1 “Why
aren’t times laid up
by the Almighty?
Why don’t those who
know him see
his days?
2 There
are people who
remove the
landmarks.
They violently take away
flocks, and feed
them.
3 They
drive away the
donkey of the
fatherless,
and they take
the widow’s ox for
a pledge.
4 They
turn the needy out
of the way.
The poor of
the earth all hide
themselves.
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.
6 They cut
their food in the
field.
They glean the
vineyard of the
wicked.
7 They
lie all night
naked without
clothing,
and have no
covering in the
cold.
8 They are
wet with the
showers of the
mountains,
and embrace the
rock for lack
of a shelter.
9 There
are those who
pluck the
fatherless from the
breast,
and take a
pledge of the
poor,
10 so
that they go
around naked
without clothing.
Being hungry, they
carry the sheaves.
11 They make
oil within the
walls of these men.
They tread wine
presses, and suffer thirst.
12 From
out of the populous
city, men groan.
The soul of
the wounded cries
out,
yet God doesn’t
regard the folly.
13 “These
are of those
who rebel against
the light.
They don’t know
its ways,
nor stay in
its paths.
14 The
murderer rises
with the light.
He kills the poor
and needy.
In the night he
is like a
thief.
15 The
eye also of
the adulterer
waits for the
twilight,
saying, ‘No eye
will see me.’
He disguises his
face.
16 In
the dark they
dig through houses.
They shut
themselves up in
the daytime.
They don’t know
the light.
17 For
the morning is
to all of
them like thick
darkness,
for they know
the terrors of
the thick darkness.
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.
19 Drought
and heat consume
the snow waters,
so does Sheol
those who have sinned.
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.
21 He devours
the barren
who don’t bear.
He shows no kindness
to the widow.
22 Yet
God preserves the
mighty by his
power.
He rises up
who has
no assurance of
life.
23 God
gives them security,
and they rest
in it.
His eyes are
on their ways.
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.
25 If
it isn’t so now,
who will prove
me a liar,
and make my
speech worth nothing?”