If this is not true, then who can prove me a liar
and show that my speech is worthless?

Without clothing, they spend the night naked,
having no covering against the cold.

The wicked displace boundary markers.
They steal a flock and provide pasture for it.

Why does the Almighty not reserve times for judgment?
Why do those who know Him never see His days?

As dry ground and heat snatch away the melted snow,
so Sheol steals those who have sinned.

The wicked are those who rebel against the light.
They do not recognize its ways
or stay on its paths.

The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast;
the nursing child of the poor is seized as collateral.

The adulterer’s eye watches for twilight,
thinking: No eye will see me;
he covers his face.

Like wild donkeys in the desert,
the poor go out to their task of foraging for food;
the wilderness provides nourishment for their children.

The murderer rises at dawn
to kill the poor and needy,
and by night he becomes a thief.

From the city, men groan;
the mortally wounded cry for help,
yet God pays no attention to this crime.

They drive away the donkeys owned by the fatherless
and take the widow’s ox as collateral.

They crush olives in their presses;
they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty.

They gather their fodder in the field
and glean the vineyards of the wicked.

They are exalted for a moment, then they are gone;
they are brought low and shrivel up like everything else.
They wither like heads of grain.

The womb forgets them;
worms feed on them;
they are remembered no more.
So injustice is broken like a tree.

Without clothing, they wander about naked.
They carry sheaves but go hungry.

They prey on the childless woman who is unable to conceive,
and do not deal kindly with the widow.

For the morning is like darkness to them.
Surely they are familiar with the terrors of darkness!

Yet God drags away the mighty by His power;
when He rises up, they have no assurance of life.

They float on the surface of the water.
Their section of the land is cursed,
so that they never go to their vineyards.

They push the needy off the road;
the poor of the land are forced into hiding.

He gives them a sense of security, so they can rely on it,
but His eyes watch over their ways.

In the dark they break into houses;
by day they lock themselves in,
never experiencing the light.

Drenched by mountain rains,
they huddle against the rocks, shelterless.