Verse 1
"Why aren't times laid up by the Almighty? Why don't those who know him see his days?
Verse 2
There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them.
Verse 3
They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, and they take the widow's ox for a pledge.
Verse 4
They turn the needy out of the way. The poor of the earth all hide themselves.
Verse 5
Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, they go forth to their work, seeking diligently for food. The wilderness yields them bread for their children.
Verse 6
They cut their provender in the field. They glean the vineyard of the wicked.
Verse 7
They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.
Verse 8
They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter.
Verse 9
There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor,
Verse 10
So that they go around naked without clothing. Being hungry, they carry the sheaves.
Verse 11
They make oil within the walls of these men. They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst.
Verse 12
From out of the populous city, men groan. The soul of the wounded cries out, yet God doesn't regard the folly.
Verse 13
"These are of those who rebel against the light. They don't know its ways, nor stay in its paths.
Verse 14
The murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy. In the night he is like a thief.
Verse 15
The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, 'No eye shall see me.' He disguises his face.
Verse 16
In the dark they dig through houses. They shut themselves up in the daytime. They don't know the light.
Verse 17
For the morning is to all of them like thick darkness, for they know the terrors of the thick darkness.
Verse 18
"They are foam on the surface of the waters. Their portion is cursed in the earth. They don't turn into the way of the vineyards.
Verse 19
Drought and heat consume the snow waters, so does Sheol those who have sinned.
Verse 20
The womb shall forget him. The worm shall feed sweetly on him. He shall be no more remembered. Unrighteousness shall be broken as a tree.
Verse 21
He devours the barren who don't bear. He shows no kindness to the widow.
Verse 22
Yet God preserves the mighty by his power. He rises up who has no assurance of life.
Verse 23
God gives them security, and they rest in it. His eyes are on their ways.
Verse 24
They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone. Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.
Verse 25
If it isn't so now, who will prove me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?"