Job Complains of Violence on the Earth
1 “Sincetimes are not hidden from the Almighty,
# Why do those who know Him see not Hisdays?
2 “Someremovelandmarks;
They seize flocks violently and feedonthem;
3 They drive away the donkey of the fatherless;
# Theytake the widow’s ox as a pledge.
4 They push the needy off the road;
# All thepoor of the land are forced to hide.
5 Indeed,likewild donkeys in the desert,
They go out to their work, searching for food.
The wildernessyieldsfood for themandfortheirchildren.
6 They gather their fodder in the field
And glean in the vineyard of the wicked.
7 Theyspend the night naked, without clothing,
And have no covering in the cold.
8 They are wet with the showers of the mountains,
# Andhuddle around the rock for want of shelter.
9 “Somesnatch the fatherless from the breast,
And take a pledge from the poor.
10 They causethepoorto go naked, withoutclothing;
And they take away the sheaves from the hungry.
11 They press out oil within their walls,
And tread winepresses, yet suffer thirst.
12 The dying groan in the city,
And the souls of the wounded cry out;
Yet God does not chargethemwith wrong.
13 “There are those who rebel against the light;
They do not know its ways
Nor abide in its paths.
14 The murderer rises with the light;
He kills the poor and needy;
And in the night he is like a thief.
15 The eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight,
# Saying, ‘No eye will see me’;
And he disguiseshisface.
16 In the dark they break into houses
Which they marked for themselves in the daytime;
# They do not know the light.
17 For the morning is the same to them as the shadow of death;
Ifsomeonerecognizesthem,
Theyareinthe terrors of the shadow of death.
18 “Theyshouldbeswift on the face of the waters,
Their portionshouldbecursed in the earth,
Sothatnoonewouldturn into the way of their vineyards.
19 As drought and heat consume the snow waters,
Sothe graveconsumesthosewhohave sinned.
20 The wombshouldforget him,
The wormshouldfeed sweetly on him;
# Heshouldbe remembered no more,
And wickednessshouldbe broken like a tree.
21 For he preys on the barrenwhodo not bear,
And does no good for the widow.
22 “ButGoddraws the mighty away with His power;
He rises up, but nomanis sure of life.
23 He gives them security, and they relyonit;
# YetHis eyesareon their ways.
24 They are exalted for a little while,
Then they are gone.
They are brought low;
They are taken out of the way like allothers;
They dry out like the heads of grain.
25 “Now ifitisnotso,who will prove me a liar,
And make my speech worth nothing?”