Chapter 24
1 " Why aren’t times laid up by the Almighty ? Why don’t those who know him see his days ?
2 There are people who remove the landmarks . They violently take away flocks , and feed them .
3 They drive away the donkey of the fatherless , and 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 Behold , as wild donkeys in the desert , they go out to their work , seeking diligently for food . The wilderness yields them bread for their children .
6 They cut their food in the field . They glean the vineyard 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 lack of a shelter .
9 There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast , and take a pledge of the poor ,
10 so that they go around naked without clothing . Being hungry , they carry the sheaves .
11 They make oil within the walls of these men. They tread wine presses , and suffer thirst .
12 From out of the populous city , men groan . The soul of the wounded cries out , yet God doesn’t regard the folly .
13 " These are of those who rebel against the light. They don’t know its ways , nor stay in its paths .
14 The murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy . In the night he is like a thief .
15 The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight , saying, ‘ No eye will see me .’ 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 like thick darkness , for they know the terrors of the thick darkness .
18 " They are foam on the surface 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 no more remembered . Unrighteousness will be broken as a tree .
21 He devours the barren who don’t bear . He shows no kindness to the widow.
22 Yet God preserves the mighty by his power . He rises up who has no assurance of life .
23 God gives them security, and they rest in it . 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 all others, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain .
25 If it isn’t so now , who will prove me a liar , and make my speech worth nothing ?"