Jó 24

¹ Why, seeing that times are not hidden from the Almighty, do those that know him not see his days?

² [Some] remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks and feed [thereof].

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

⁴ They turn the needy out of the way; and all the poor of the earth hide themselves [from them].

⁵ Behold, [as] wild asses in the desert, they go forth to their work, rising early for a prey; the wilderness [yields] food for them [and] for [their] children.

⁶ In the field they reap their fodder, and the wicked gather the vintage [that is not theirs].

⁷ They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that [they have] no covering in the cold.

⁸ They are wet with the floods of the mountains and embrace the rock for want of a covering.

⁹ They pluck the fatherless from the breast and take a pledge of the poor.

¹⁰ They cause the naked to go without clothing, and they take away the sheaves [from] the hungry.

¹¹ They press oil within their walls [and] tread [their] winepresses and suffer thirst.

¹² Men groan from out of the city, and the souls of the dead cry out; yet God did not hinder [them].

¹³ They are among those that rebel against the light; they have never known its ways nor abided in its paths.

¹⁴ The murderer rises with the light, kills the poor and the needy, and in the night is as a thief.

¹⁵ The eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me; and disguises [his] face.

¹⁶ In the dark they dig through houses, [which] they had marked for themselves in the daytime; they do not know the light.

¹⁷ For the morning [is] to them even as the shadow of death; if they are known, the terrors of the shadow of death [come over them].

¹⁸ They are swift upon the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth; they never come by the way of the vineyards.

¹⁹ Drought and heat consume the snow waters; [so does] Sheol [consume those who] have sinned.

²⁰ The Merciful One shall forget them; the worm shall feed sweetly on them; they shall never be remembered again; and iniquity shall be broken as a tree.

²¹ He afflicted the barren woman that did not conceive and never did good unto the widow.

²² He furthered the violent with his power; he did not lend to anyone in his life.

²³ [If] he gave credit [to some] to take [them] over, his eyes [were] upon their ways.

²⁴ They were exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all [others] and cut off as the tops of the heads of grain.

²⁵ And if [it is] not so now, who will make me a liar or reduce my speech to nothing?: