Job, 24

1. Why does Shaddai not make known the times he has fixed; why do his faithful never see his Days?

1. Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days?

2. The wicked move boundary-marks away, they carry off flock and shepherd.

2. [Some] remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed [thereof].

3. They drive away the orphan's donkey, as security, they seize the widow's ox.

3. They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow's ox for a pledge.

4. The needy have to keep out of the way, poor country people have to keep out of sight.

4. They turn the needy out of the way: the poor of the earth hide themselves together.

5. Like wild desert donkeys, they go out to work, searching from dawn for food, and at evening for something on which to feed their children.

5. Behold, [as] wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their work; rising betimes for a prey: the wilderness [yieldeth] food for them [and] for [their] children.

6. They go harvesting in the field of some scoundrel, they go pilfering in the vineyards of the wicked.

6. They reap [every one] his corn in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked.

7. They spend the night naked, lacking clothes, with no covering against the cold.

7. They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that [they have] no covering in the cold.

8. Mountain rainstorms cut them through, unsheltered, they hug the rocks.

8. They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter.

9. The orphan child is torn from the breast, the child of the poor is exacted as security.

9. They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor.

10. They go about naked, lacking clothes, and starving while they carry the sheaves.

10. They cause [him] to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaf [from] the hungry;

11. Two little walls, their shelter at high noon; parched with thirst, they have to tread the winepress.

11. [Which] make oil within their walls, [and] tread [their] winepresses, and suffer thirst.

12. From the towns come the groans of the dying and the gasp of the wounded crying for help. Yet God remains deaf to prayer!

12. Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly [to them].

13. In contrast, there are those who reject the light: who know nothing of its ways and who do not frequent its paths.

13. They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.

14. When all is dark the murderer leaves his bed to kill the poor and needy. During the night the thief goes on the prowl,

14. The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief.

15. The eye of the adulterer watches for twilight, 'No one will see me,' he mutters as he masks his face.In the daytime they keep out of sight, these people who do not want to know the light.

15. The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth [his] face.

16. breaking into houses while the darkness lasts.

16. In the dark they dig through houses, [which] they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light.

17. For all of them, morning is a time of shadow dark as death, since that is when they know what fear is.

17. For the morning [is] to them even as the shadow of death: if [one] know [them, they are in] the terrors of the shadow of death.

18.

18. He [is] swift as the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth: he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards.

19.

19. Drought and heat consume the snow waters: [so doth] the grave [those which] have sinned.

20.

20. The womb shall forget him; the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a tree.

21.

21. He evil entreateth the barren [that] beareth not: and doeth not good to the widow.

22.

22. He draweth also the mighty with his power: he riseth up, and no [man] is sure of life.

23.

23. [Though] it be given him [to be] in safety, whereon he resteth; yet his eyes [are] upon their ways.

24.

24. They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all [other], and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.

25. Is this not so? Who can prove me a liar or show that my words have no substance?

25. And if [it be] not [so] now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?