Job - Chapter 24 | English Standard Version

  • 1. "Why are not times of judgment kept by the Almighty, and why do those who know him never see his days?
  • 2. Some move landmarks; they seize flocks and pasture them.
  • 3. They drive away the donkey of the fatherless; they take the widow's ox for a pledge.
  • 4. They thrust the poor off the road; the poor of the earth all hide themselves.
  • 5. Behold, like wild donkeys in the desert the poor go out to their toil, seeking game; the wasteland yields food for their children.
  • 6. They gather their fodder in the field, and they glean the vineyard of the wicked man.
  • 7. They lie all night naked, without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.
  • 8. They 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.)
  • 10. They go about naked, without clothing; hungry, they carry the sheaves;
  • 11. among the olive rows of the wicked they make oil; they tread the winepresses, but suffer thirst.
  • 12. From out of the city the dying groan, and the soul of the wounded cries for help; yet God charges no one with wrong.
  • 13. "There are those who rebel against the light, who are not acquainted with its ways, and do not stay in its paths.
  • 14. The murderer rises before it is light, that he may kill the poor and needy, and in the night he is like a thief.
  • 15. The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight, saying, 'No eye will see me'; and he veils his face.
  • 16. In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves up; they do not know the light.
  • 17. For deep darkness is morning to all of them; for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.
  • 18. "You say, 'Swift are they on the face of the waters; their portion is cursed in the land; no treader turns toward their vineyards.
  • 19. Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters; so does Sheol those who have sinned.
  • 20. The womb forgets them; the worm finds them sweet; they are no longer remembered, so wickedness is broken like a tree.'
  • 21. "They wrong the barren childless woman, and do no good to the widow.
  • 22. Yet God prolongs the life of the mighty by his power; they rise up when they despair of life.
  • 23. He gives them security, and they are supported, and his eyes are upon their ways.
  • 24. They 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.
  • 25. If it is not so, who will prove me a liar and show that there is nothing in what I say?"
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