Job Complains of Violence on the Earth

1‘Why are times not kept by the Almighty,24.1 Traditional rendering of Heb Shaddai

and why do those who know him never see his days?

2The wicked24.2 Gk: Heb they remove landmarks;

they seize flocks and pasture them.

3They drive away the donkey of the orphan;

they take the widow's ox for a pledge.

4They thrust the needy off the road;

the poor of the earth all hide themselves.

5Like wild asses in the desert

they go out to their toil,

scavenging in the waste-land

food for their young.

6They reap in a field not their own

and they glean in the vineyard of the wicked.

7They lie all night naked, without clothing,

and have no covering in the cold.

8They are wet with the rain of the mountains,

and cling to the rock for want of shelter.

9‘There are those who snatch the orphan child from the breast,

and take as a pledge the infant of the poor.

10They go about naked, without clothing;

though hungry, they carry the sheaves;

11between their terraces24.11 Meaning of Heb uncertain they press out oil;

they tread the wine presses, but suffer thirst.

12From the city the dying groan,

and the throat of the wounded cries for help;

yet God pays no attention to their prayer.

13‘There are those who rebel against the light,

who are not acquainted with its ways,

and do not stay in its paths.

14The murderer rises at dusk

to kill the poor and needy,

and in the night is like a thief.

15The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight,

saying, “No eye will see me”;

and he disguises his face.

16In the dark they dig through houses;

by day they shut themselves up;

they do not know the light.

17For deep darkness is morning to all of them;

for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.

18‘Swift are they on the face of the waters;

their portion in the land is cursed;

no treader turns towards their vineyards.

19Drought and heat snatch away the snow-waters;

so does Sheol those who have sinned.

20The womb forgets them;

the worm finds them sweet;

they are no longer remembered;

so wickedness is broken like a tree.

21‘They harm24.21 Gk Tg: Heb feed on or associate with the childless woman,

and do no good to the widow.

22Yet God24.22 Heb he prolongs the life of the mighty by his power;

they rise up when they despair of life.

23He gives them security, and they are supported;

his eyes are upon their ways.

24They are exalted a little while, and then are gone;

they wither and fade like the mallow;24.24 Gk: Heb like all others

they are cut off like the heads of grain.

25If it is not so, who will prove me a liar,

and show that there is nothing in what I say?’