Job 24  Common English Bible

24 Why doesn’t the Almighty establish times for punishment?^[a]
    Why can’t those who know him see his days?
² People move boundary stones,
        herd flocks they’ve stolen,
³     drive off an orphan’s donkey,
        take a widow’s ox as collateral,
⁴     thrust the poor out of the way,
        make the land’s needy hide together.
⁵ They are like the wild donkeys in the desert;
    they go forth at dawn searching for prey;
        the wasteland is food for their young.
⁶ They gather their food in the field,
    glean in unproductive vineyards,
⁷     spend the night naked, unclothed,
        in the cold without a cover,
⁸     wet from mountain rains,
        with no refuge, huddled against a rock.
⁹ The orphan is stolen from the breast;
    the infant^[b] of the poor is taken as collateral.
¹⁰ The poor go around naked, without clothes,
    carry bundles of grain while hungry,
¹¹     crush olives between millstones,^[c]
    tread winepresses, but remain thirsty.
¹² From the city, the dying cry out;
    the throat of the mortally wounded screams, but God assigns no blame.

¹³ They rebel against light,
    don’t acknowledge its direction,
    don’t dwell in its paths.
¹⁴ The murderer rises at twilight,
    kills the poor and needy;
    at night, they are like a thief.
¹⁵ The adulterer’s eye watches for twilight,
    thinking, No eye can see me,
    and puts a mask over his face.
¹⁶ In the dark they break into houses;
    they shut themselves in by day;
    they don’t know the light.
¹⁷ Deep darkness is morning to them
    because they recognize the horror of darkness.
¹⁸ They are scum on the water’s surface;
    their portion of the land is cursed;
    no one walks down a path in the vineyards.
¹⁹ Drought and heat steal melted snow,
    just as the underworld^[d] steals sinners.
²⁰ The womb forgets them;
    the worm consumes them;
        they aren’t remembered,
        and so wickedness is shattered like a tree.
²¹ They prey on the barren, the childless,
    do nothing good for the widow.
²² They drag away the strong by force;
    they may get up but without guarantee of survival.
²³ They make themselves secure;
        they are at ease.
His^[e] eyes are on their ways.
²⁴ They are exalted for a short time, but no longer.
    They are humbled then gathered in like everyone else;
        cut off like heads of grain.
²⁵ If this isn’t so, who can prove me a liar
    and make my words disappear?