Job continues

Why doesn't God set a time?

1Why doesn't God

set a time for court?

Why don't his people know

where he can be found?

2Sinners remove boundary markers

and take care of sheep

they have stolen.

3They cheat orphans and widows

by taking their donkeys

and oxen.

4The poor are trampled

and forced to hide

5in the desert,

where they and their children

must live like wild donkeys

and search for food.

6If they want grain or grapes,24.6 If they want grain or grapes: Poor people were allowed to gather what was left in the fields and vineyards after the harvest.

they must go to the property

of these sinners.

7They sleep naked in the cold,

because they have no cover,

8and during a storm

their only shelters are caves

among the rocky cliffs.

9Children whose fathers have died

are taken from their mothers

as payment for a debt.

10Then they are forced to work

naked in the grain fields

because they have no clothes,

and they go hungry.

11They crush olives to make oil

and grapes to make wine—

but still they go thirsty.

12And along the city streets,

the wounded and dying cry out,

yet God does nothing.

Some reject the light

13Some rebel and refuse

to follow the light.

14Soon after sunset they murder

the poor and the needy,

and at night they steal.

15Others wait for the dark,

thinking they won't be seen

if they sleep with the wife

or husband of someone else.

16Robbers hide during the day,

then break in after dark

because they reject the light.

17They prefer night to day,

since the terrors of the night

are their friends.

Sinners are filthy foam

18Those sinners are filthy foam

on the surface of the water.

And so, their fields and vineyards

will fall under a curse

and won't produce.

19Just as the heat of summer

swallows the snow,

the world of the dead

swallows those who sin.

20Forgotten here on earth,

and with their power broken,

they taste sweet to worms.

21Sinners take advantage of widows

and other helpless women.24.21 women: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 21.

22But God's mighty strength

destroys those in power.

Even if they seem successful,

they are doomed to fail.

23God may let them feel secure,

but they are never

out of his sight.

24Great for a while; gone for ever!

Sinners are mowed down

like weeds,

then they wither and die.

25If I haven't spoken the truth,

then prove me wrong.