Job Complains of Violence on the Earth
and why do those who know him never see his days?
2 Men remove landmarks;
they seize flocks and pasture them.
3 They drive away the ass 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 asses in the desert
they go forth to their toil,
seeking prey in the wilderness
as food[a] for their children.
6 They gather their[b] 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 want of shelter.
9 (There are those who snatch the fatherless child from the breast,
and take in pledge the infant of the poor.)
10 They go about naked, without clothing;
hungry, they carry the sheaves;
11 among the olive rows of the wicked[c] they make oil;
they tread the wine presses, but suffer thirst.
12 From out of the city the dying groan,
and the soul of the wounded cries for help;
yet God pays no attention to their prayer.
who are not acquainted with its ways,
and do not stay in its paths.
14 The murderer rises in the dark,[d]
that he may kill the poor and needy;
and in the night he is as a thief.
15 The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight,
saying, ‘No eye will see me’;
and he disguises 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.
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 squares of the town[e] forget them;
their name[f] is no longer remembered;
so wickedness is broken like a tree.’
and do no good to the widow.
22 Yet God[g] 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 wither and fade like the mallow;[h]
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?”
Footnotes
- Job 24:5 Heb food to him
- Job 24:6 Heb his
- Job 24:11 Heb their olive rows
- Job 24:14 Cn: Heb at the light
- Job 24:20 Cn: Heb obscure
- Job 24:20 Cn: Heb a worm
- Job 24:22 Heb he
- Job 24:24 Gk: Heb all