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The Holy Bible
The Book of Job
Job Chapter 24

  

Job Complains of All the Violence on the Earth

1“WHY does the Almighty not set times for judgment?
Why do those who know Him never see His days?

2 “The wicked remove boundary markers;
they steal flocks and pasture them. 3 They drive away the donkey of the orphan,
they take the widow’s ox for a pledge. 4 They push the needy off the road,
the poor of the land are forced to hide themselves. 5 Like wild donkeys in the desert,
the poor go out to their toil, foraging for food in the wasteland for them and their children. 6 They gather their fodder in the field,
and glean in the vineyard of the wicked. 7 Without clothing, they spend the night naked;
they have no covering against the cold. 8 They are wet with the showers of the mountains,
and embrace the rocks for lack of shelter.

9 “The fatherless child is snatched from the breast;
the infant of the poor is seized for a debt. 10 The poor go about naked without clothing;
they carry around sheaves, but still go hungry. 11 They press out the oil from olives among their terraces;
they tread their wine presses, but still suffer thirst. 12 The groaning of dying men rises from the city,
and the souls of the wounded cry out for help. Yet God charges no one with wrongdoing.

13 “There are those who rebel against the light,
who do not know its ways, and do not stay in its paths. 14 The murderer rises after dark
to kill the poor and needy; he goes out into the night a thief. 15 They eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight,
thinking, ‘No eye will see me’, and he disguises his face. 16 In the dark men breakinto houses,
but by day they lock themselves in; so they do not know the light. 17 For the morning is like the shadow of death to all of them;
they are familiar with the terrors of death’s deep darkness.

18 “They are like foam on the surface of the water;
their section of the land is cursed, so that no one ever goes to their vineyards. 19 As drought and heat consume the snow waters,
so Sheol snatches away those who have sinned. 20 The womb forgets them,
the worm feasts on them, untill they are remembered no more;
so injustice is broken like a tree.

21 “They prey on the barren woman who cannot bear,
and do no good to the widow. 22 But God drags away the mighty by His power;
when He rises up, no man has assurance of life. 23 He gives them security, and they are supported,
yet His eyes are on their ways. 24 They are exalted for a moment, then they are gone;
they are brought low and taken away like all the others; they are cut off like the heads of grain. 25 Now if it is not so, who will prove me a liar,
and show that my speech is worthless?”