Job 24

₁Why doesn't God set a time for judging,

a day of justice for those who serve him?

₂People move boundary stones to get more land;

they steal sheep and put them with their own flocks.

₃They take donkeys that belong to orphans,

and keep a widow's ox till she pays her debts.

₄They prevent the poor from getting their rights

and force the needy to run and hide.

₅So the poor, like wild donkeys,

search for food in the dry wilderness;

nowhere else can they find food for their children.

₆They have to harvest fields they don't own,

and gather grapes in the vineyards of the wicked.

₇At night they sleep with nothing to cover them,

nothing to keep them from the cold.

₈They are drenched by the rain that falls on the mountains,

and they huddle beside the rocks for shelter.

₉Evil people make slaves of fatherless infants

and take the children of the poor in payment for debts.

₁₀But the poor must go out with no clothes to protect them;

they must go hungry while harvesting wheat.

₁₁They press olives for oil, and grapes for wine,

but they themselves are thirsty.

₁₂In the cities the wounded and dying cry out,

but God ignores their prayers.

₁₃There are those who reject the light;

they don't understand it or go where it leads.

₁₄At dawn the murderer gets up

and goes out to kill the poor,

and at night he steals.

₁₅The adulterer waits for twilight to come;

he covers his face so that no one can see him.

₁₆At night thieves break into houses,

but by day they hide and avoid the light.

₁₇They fear the light of day,

but darkness holds no terror for them.

₁₈The wicked are swept away by floods,

and the land they own is under God's curse;

they no longer go to work in their vineyards.

₁₉As snow vanishes in heat and drought,

so sinners vanish from the land of the living.

₂₀Not even their mothers remember them now;

they are eaten by worms and destroyed like fallen trees.

₂₁That happens because they ill-treated widows

and showed no kindness to childless women.

₂₂God, in his strength, destroys the mighty;

God acts — and the wicked die.

₂₃God may let them live secure,

but keeps an eye on them all the time.

₂₄For a while the wicked prosper,

but then they wither like weeds,

like ears of corn that have been cut off.

₂₅Can anyone deny that this is so?

Can anyone prove that my words are not true?