1 "Why does the Almighty not set times for judgment?
Why must those who know him look in vain for such days? |
2 Men move boundary stones;
they pasture flocks they have stolen. |
3 They drive away the orphan's donkey
and take the widow's ox in pledge. |
4 They thrust the needy from the path
and force all the poor of the land into hiding. |
5 Like wild donkeys in the desert,
the poor go about their labor of foraging food;
the wasteland provides food for their children. |
6 They gather fodder in the fields
and glean in the vineyards of the wicked. |
7 Lacking clothes, they spend the night naked;
they have nothing to cover themselves in the cold. |
8 They are drenched by mountain rains
and hug the rocks for lack of shelter. |
9 The fatherless child is snatched from the breast;
the infant of the poor is seized for a debt. |
10 Lacking clothes, they go about naked;
they carry the sheaves, but still go hungry. |
11 They crush olives among the terraces1 24:11 Or olives between the millstones ; the meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain. ;
they tread the winepresses, yet suffer thirst. |
12 The groans of the dying rise from the city,
and the souls of the wounded cry out for help.
But God charges no one with wrongdoing. |
13 "There are those who rebel against the light,
who do not know its ways
or stay in its paths. |
14 When daylight is gone, the murderer rises up
and kills the poor and needy;
in the night he steals forth like a thief. |
15 The eye of the adulterer watches for dusk;
he thinks, 'No eye will see me,'
and he keeps his face concealed. |
16 In the dark, men break into houses,
but by day they shut themselves in;
they want nothing to do with the light. |
17 For all of them, deep darkness is their morning2 24:17 Or them, their morning is like the shadow of death ;
they make friends with the terrors of darkness.3 24:17 Or of the shadow of death |
18 "Yet they are foam on the surface of the water;
their portion of the land is cursed,
so that no one goes to the vineyards. |
19 As heat and drought snatch away the melted snow,
so the grave4 24:19 Hebrew Sheol snatches away those who have sinned. |
20 The womb forgets them,
the worm feasts on them;
evil men are no longer remembered
but are broken like a tree. |
21 They prey on the barren and childless woman,
and to the widow show no kindness. |
22 But God drags away the mighty by his power;
though they become established, they have no assurance of life. |
23 He may let them rest in a feeling of security,
but his eyes are on their ways. |
24 For a little while they are exalted, and then they are gone;
they are brought low and gathered up like all others;
they are cut off like heads of grain. |
25 "If this is not so, who can prove me false
and reduce my words to nothing?" |
