Job 24 — ULB

24Verse 1Why are times for judging wicked people not set by the Almighty?
Why do not those who are faithful to God see his days of judgment come?
^{Verse 2}There are wicked people who remove boundary markers;
there are wicked people who take away flocks by force and put them in their own pastures.
^{Verse 3}They drive away the donkey of those without fathers;
they take the widow's ox as security.
^{Verse 4}They force needy people out of their path;
poor people of the earth all hide themselves from them.
^{Verse 5}See, these poor people go out to their work
like wild donkeys in the wilderness, looking carefully for food;
perhaps the Arabah will provide them food for their children.
^{Verse 6}Poor people reap in the night in other people's fields;
they glean grapes from the harvest of those wicked people.
^{Verse 7}They lie naked all night without clothing;
they have no covering in the cold.
^{Verse 8}They are wet with the showers of the mountains;
they lie next to large rocks because they have no shelter.
^{Verse 9}There are wicked people who pluck orphans from their mothers' breast,
and wicked people who take children as security from poor people.
^{Verse 10}But the poor people go about naked without clothing;
although they go hungry, they carry bundles of grain belonging to other people.
^{Verse 11}The poor people make oil within the walls of those wicked men;
they tread the wicked men's winepresses, but they themselves suffer thirst.
^{Verse 12}From out of the city the dying groan,
and the throat of the wounded cries out for help.
But God does not ascribe blame^{Verse 13}Some of these wicked people rebel against the light;
they know not its ways,
nor do they stay in its paths.
^{Verse 14}Before daylight the murderer rises
and he kills poor and needy people;
in the night he is like a thief.
^{Verse 15}Also, the eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight;
he says, 'No eye will see me.'
He disguises his face.
^{Verse 16}In the darkness wicked people dig into houses;
but they shut themselves up in the daytime;
they do not care for the light.
^{Verse 17}For all of them, thick darkness is like the morning;
for they are friends with the terrors of thick darkness.^{Verse 18}Swiftly they pass away, however, like foam on the surface of the waters;
their portion of the land is cursed;
no one goes to work in their vineyards.
^{Verse 19}As drought and heat melt away the snow into waters,
so Sheol takes away those who have sinned.
^{Verse 20}The womb that bore him will forget him;
the worm will feed sweetly on him;
he will be remembered no more;
in this way, wickedness will be broken like a tree.
^{Verse 21}The wicked one devours the barren women who have not borne children;
he does no good to the widow.
^{Verse 22}Yet God drags away the mighty people by his power;
he rises up and does not strengthen them in life.
^{Verse 23}God allows them to think they are secure, and they are happy about that,
but his eyes are on their ways.
^{Verse 24}These people are exalted; still, in only a little while, they will be gone;
indeed, they will be brought low; they will be gathered up like all the others;
they will be cut off like the tops of ears of grain.
^{Verse 25}If it is not so, who can prove me to be a liar;
who can make my speech worth nothing?”