Jó 24

¹ Why are times not laid up by the Almighty? And why don't those who know him see his days?

² They move the landmarks; They violently take away flocks, and feed them.

³ They drive away the donkey of the fatherless; 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 Look, as wild donkeys in the desert, They go forth to their work, seeking diligently for food; The wilderness [yields] them bread for their children.

⁶ They cut their fodder in the field; And they glean the vintage 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 want of a shelter.

⁹ They pluck the fatherless from the breast, And take a pledge of the poor;

¹⁰ [So that] they go about naked without clothing, And being hungry they carry the sheaves.

¹¹ They make oil inside their walls; They tread [their] winepresses, and suffer thirst.

¹² From out of the populous city men groan, And the soul of the wounded cries out: Yet God does not regard the folly.

¹³ These are of those who rebel against the light; They don't know its ways, Nor remain in its paths.

¹⁴ The murderer rises with the light; He kills the poor and needy; And in the night he is as a thief.

¹⁵ The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, Saying, No eye will see me: And 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 as thick darkness; For they know the terrors of the thick darkness.

¹⁸ Swiftly they [pass away] on the face 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 remembered no more; And unrighteousness will be broken as a tree.

²¹ He devours the barren that does not bear, And does not do good to the widow.

²² Yet [God] preserves the mighty by his power: He rises up that has no assurance of life.

²³ [God] gives them to be in security, and they rest on it; And 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 a [dried-up] flower, And are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.

²⁵ And if it is not so now, who will prove me a liar, And make my speech worth nothing?