Job 24

Job 24

Job Complains of Violence on the Earth

1“Why are times not kept by the Almighty,[#Ps 31.15; Jer 46.10; #24.1 Traditional rendering of Heb Shaddai]

and why do those who know him never see his days?

2The wicked remove landmarks;[#Deut 19.14; 27.17; 28.31; #24.2 Gk: Heb they]

they seize flocks and pasture them.

3They drive away the donkey of the orphan;[#Ex 22.26; Deut 24.6, 10, 12, 17; Job 22.6]

they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.

4They thrust the needy off the road;[#Deut 24.14; Prov 28.28]

the poor of the earth all hide themselves.

5Like wild asses in the desert[#Job 39.5–8; Ps 104.23]

they go out to their toil,

scavenging in the wasteland

food for their young.

6They reap in a field not their own,

and they glean in the vineyard of the wicked.

7They lie all night naked, without clothing,[#Ex 22.26; Job 22.6]

and have no covering in the cold.

8They are wet with the rain of the mountains[#Lam 4.5]

and cling to the rock for want of shelter.

9“There are those who snatch the orphan child from the breast[#Deut 24.17]

and take as a pledge the infant of the poor.

10They go about naked, without clothing;

though hungry, they carry the sheaves;

11between their terraces they press out oil;[#24.11 Meaning of Heb uncertain]

they tread the winepresses but suffer thirst.

12From the city the dying groan,[#Job 9.23, 24; Jer 51.52; Ezek 26.15]

and the throat of the wounded cries for help;

yet God pays no attention to their prayer.

13“There are those who rebel against the light,[#Isa 5.20; Jn 3.19]

who are not acquainted with its ways

and do not stay in its paths.

14The murderer rises at dusk[#Ps 10.8; Mic 2.1]

to kill the poor and needy

and in the night is like a thief.

15The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight,[#Ps 10.11; Prov 7.9]

saying, ‘No eye will see me,’

and he disguises his face.

16In the dark they dig through houses;[#Ex 22.2]

by day they shut themselves up;

they do not know the light.

17For deep darkness is morning to all of them;[#Ps 91.5]

for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.

18“Swift are they on the face of the waters;[#Job 9.26; Ps 90.5]

their portion in the land is cursed;

no treader turns toward their vineyards.

19Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters;[#Job 6.16, 17; 21.13]

so does Sheol those who have sinned.

20The womb forgets them;[#Ps 31.12; Prov 10.7]

the worm finds them sweet;

they are no longer remembered,

so wickedness is broken like a tree.

21“They harm the childless woman[#Job 22.9; #24.21 Gk Tg: Heb feed on or associate with]

and do no good to the widow.

22Yet God prolongs the life of the mighty by his power;[#Deut 28.66; #24.22 Heb he]

they rise up when they despair of life.

23He gives them security, and they are supported;[#Job 11.11; 12.6]

his eyes are upon their ways.

24They are exalted a little while and then are gone;[#Job 14.21; Ps 37.10; Isa 17.5]

they wither and fade like the mallow;

they are cut off like the heads of grain.

25If it is not so, who will prove me a liar

and show that there is nothing in what I say?”

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, copyright © 2021 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Published by: National Council of the Churches of Christ