Job 24:1-25 - Job's Eighth Speech, Continued

¹ Why are times not laid up by the Almighty? And why do those who know him not see his days? ² There are [men] who remove the landmarks. They take away flocks violently, and feed them. ³ They drive away the donkey of the fatherless. They take the widow's ox for a pledge. ⁴ They turn the needy out of the way. The poor of the earth all hide themselves. 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 sons. ⁶ They cut their provender in the field, and they glean the vintage of the wicked. ⁷ They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold. ⁸ They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter. ⁹ There are [men] who pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor, ¹⁰ [so that] they go about naked without clothing, and being hungry they carry the sheaves. ¹¹ They make oil within the walls of these men. They tread [their] winepresses, and suffer thirst. ¹² From out of the populous city men groan, and the soul of the wounded cries out. Yet God does not regard the folly.

¹³ These are of those who rebel against the light. They do not know the ways of it, nor abide in the paths of it. ¹⁴ The murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy. And in the night he is as a thief. ¹⁵ The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me. And he disguises his face. ¹⁶ In the dark they dig through houses. They shut themselves up in the daytime. They do not know the light. ¹⁷ For the morning is to all of them as thick darkness. For they know the terrors of the thick darkness.

¹⁸ Swiftly they [pass away] upon the face of the waters. Their portion is cursed in the earth. They do not turn into the way of the vineyards. ¹⁹ Drought and heat consume the snow waters, [and] Sheol [those who] have sinned. ²⁰ The womb shall forget him. The worm shall feed sweetly on him. He shall be no more remembered. And unrighteousness shall be broken as a tree. ²¹ He devours the barren who do not bear, and does no good to the widow. ²² Yet [God] preserves the mighty by his power. He rises up who has no assurance of life. ²³ [God] gives them to be in security, and they rest in it. And his eyes are upon their ways. ²⁴ They are exalted. Yet a little while, and they are gone. Yea, 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.

²⁵ And if it be not so now, who will prove me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?