Iyov 24

Orthodox Jewish Bible

24 Why are times [for judgment] from Shaddai not kept, and why do those who have da’as of him not see his yamim [days [of assize])?

² Some move the boundary stones; they steal edar, and pasture them.

³ They drive away the chamor of the yetomim, they take the ox of the almanah for a pledge.

⁴ They thrust the needy out of the derech; the poor of the eretz needs hide themselves together.

⁵ Look, as wild donkeys in the midbar go they forth to their work; foraging for teref (nourishment); the wilderness yieldeth lechem for them and for their na’arim.

⁶ They reap every one his fodder in the sadeh, and they glean the kerem of the resha’im.

⁷ They spend the night arom (naked) without levush (clothing), they have no covering in the cold.

⁸ They are wet with the rain of the harim, and embrace the tzur for want of a shelter.

⁹ They pluck the yatom from the breast, and seize the oni for debt.

¹⁰ They cause him to go arom without levush, and they take away the omer (sheaf) from the hungry;

¹¹ Which crush olives within their walls, and tread their winepresses, yet suffer thirst.

¹² Men groan from out of the Ir, and the nefesh of the chalalim (wounded ones) crieth out, yet Eloah chargeth not tiflah (folly) to them.

¹³ They are of those that are moredei ohr (rebelling ones against the light); they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.

¹⁴ The rotzeach rising with the daylight killeth the oni and needy, and in the lailah is like a ganav.

¹⁵ The eye also of the no’ef is shomer, watching for the dusk’s twilight, saying, No eye shall see me, and puts something to hide his face.

¹⁶ In the choshech they dig through batim (houses); in the daytime they shut themselves in; they have no da’as of the ohr.

¹⁷ For the boker is to them even as the tzalmavet; they are friends with the terrors of tzalmavet.

¹⁸ Swiftly vanishing is he on the surface of the mayim; their chelek is cursed in ha’aretz; he turneth no more in the derech of the kramim (vineyards).

¹⁹ Drought and heat consume the snow waters; so doth Sheol those which have sinned.

²⁰ The rechem (womb) shall forget him; the worm shall feast on him; he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken like an etz.

²¹ He plundereth the barren that beareth not; and doeth not good to the almanah.

²² He drags away also the mighty with his ko’ach; he riseth up, and no man is sure of life.

²³ Though it be given him to be in safety, and he be sustained, yet His eynayim are upon their ways.

²⁴ They are exalted me’at (for a little while), then they are no more and are withered and snatched away like all others, and cut off like the tops of the ears of grain.

²⁵ And if it be not so, who will charge me with lying, and make my milah (word) worth nothing? [T.N. Notice the question answered by Romans, Galatians, and Gn 15:6 as well as Chabakuk 2:4 is stated in Job 25:4 below; see Ephesians 2:8-9 and Ro 3:24,26, 28; 4:2; 5:1,9; Ga 2:16,17; 3:11, 24; 5:4; Ti 3:7; this the most important question raised in the Bible: it is for eternity]