Job, 24

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

1. Why is what happens hidden from God? Why do his faithful never see his justice?

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

2. The wicked remove landmarks and steal both flocks and shepherds.

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

3. They seize the orphan's ass and for a pledge take the widow's ox.

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

4. The needy stay far from the road, the poor go into hiding.

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.

5. Like wild asses in the wasteland, they look for food; the poor toil in the night, there is no food for their children!

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

6. They gather fodder in the fields, work in the vineyards of the wicked.

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

7. Destitute, they lie down naked, shivering in the freezing cold.

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

8. Drenched with mountain rains, they hug the rocks for lack of shelter.

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

9. The fatherless child is snatched from the breast, the infant of the poor seized for a debt.

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

10. Without clothes, they go naked, starving as they carry the sheaves.

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

11. Between the millstones they crush olives; they tread the winepress but suffer thirst.

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

12. In the city the dying groan, and the wounded cry out for help but God pays no attention.

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

13. Many rebel against the light, they do not know its way or stay in its path.

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

14. When dawn breaks, the murderer rises to kill the poor and the helpless.

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

15. The adulterer waits for dusk, thinking that no eye watches him. At night the thief walks about and puts a mask over his face,

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

16. ready to break into the houses that he chose during the day.

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.

17. Morning is their darkest hour the time for them to fear.

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

18. The wicked are foam on the face of the waters; their portion of the land is cursed, and no one goes to their vineyards.

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

19. As drought and heat snap up the thawed snow, so Sheol swallows up the sinner,

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.

20. and the womb which formed him, forgets him. Evil men are no longer remembered, like a fallen tree they are broken.

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

21. They preyed on the barren, childless woman, and showed no kindness to the widow.

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

22. But the Powerful stands against them and drags away the mighty.

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

23. He may let them feel secure, but his eyes are upon their ways.

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.

24. They are momentarily exalted, and then gone; they wither and fade like a weed. They are cut off like heads of grain.

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

25. If this is not so, who can prove me wrong and reduce my words to nothing?