Job 24
24
Job Says God Seems to Ignore Wrongs
1“Why does the Almighty not set seasons for judgment?
Why do those who know Him not see His days [for punishment of the wicked]? [Acts 1:7]
2“Some remove the landmarks;
They [violently] seize and pasture flocks [appropriating land and flocks openly].
3“They drive away the donkeys of the orphans;
They take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
4“They crowd the needy off the road;
The poor of the land all hide themselves.
5“Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert,
The poor go to their work, diligently seeking food;
As bread for their children in the desert.
6“They harvest their fodder in a field [that is not their own],
And glean the vineyard of the wicked.
7“They spend the night naked, without clothing,
And have no covering against the cold.
8“They are wet from the rain of the mountains
And cling to the rock for lack of shelter.
9“Others snatch the fatherless [infants] from the breast [to sell or make them slaves],
And against the poor they take a pledge [of clothing].
10“They cause the poor to go about naked without clothing,
And they take away the sheaves [of grain] from the hungry.
11“Within the walls [of the wicked] the poor make [olive] oil;
They tread [the grapes in] the wine presses, but thirst.
12“From the [populous and crowded] city men groan,
And the souls of the wounded cry out for help;
Yet God [seemingly] does not pay attention to the wrong [done to them].
13¶“Others have been with those who rebel against the light;
They do not want to know its ways
Nor stay in its paths.
14“The murderer rises at dawn;
He kills the poor and the needy,
And at night he becomes a thief.
15“The eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight,
Saying, ‘No eye will see me,’
And he covers his face.
16“In the dark they dig into [the penetrable walls of] houses;
They shut themselves up by day;
They do not know the light [of day].
17“For the morning is the same to him as the thick darkness [of midnight];
For he is familiar with the terrors of thick darkness.
18¶“They are insignificant on the surface of the water;
Their portion is cursed on the earth;
They do not turn toward the vineyards.
19“Drought and heat consume the snow waters;
So does Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead) [consume] those who have sinned.
20“A mother will forget him;
The worm feeds on him until he is no longer remembered.
And wickedness will be broken like a tree [which cannot be restored]. [Prov 10:7]
21“He preys on the barren (childless) woman
And does no good for the widow.
22“Yet God draws away the mighty by His power;
He rises, but no one has assurance of life.
23“God gives them security, and they are supported;
And His eyes are on their ways.
24“They are exalted for a little while, and then they are gone;
Moreover, they are brought low and like everything [they are] gathered up and taken out of the way;
Even like the heads of grain they are cut off.
25“And if this is not so, who can prove me a liar
And make my speech worthless?”
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Job 24: AMP
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Job 24
24
1Why doesn't God set a time for judging,
a day of justice for those who serve him?
2People move boundary stones to get more land;
they steal sheep and put them with their own flocks.
3They take donkeys that belong to orphans,
and keep a widow's ox till she pays her debts.
4They prevent the poor from getting their rights
and force the needy to run and hide.
5So the poor, like wild donkeys,
search for food in the dry wilderness;
nowhere else can they find food for their children.
6They have to harvest fields they don't own,#24.6 fields they don't own: Having been cheated out of their own land, the poor are forced to work for others for very small pay.
and gather grapes in the vineyards of the wicked.
7At night they sleep with nothing to cover them,
nothing to keep them from the cold.
8They are drenched by the rain that falls on the mountains,
and they huddle beside the rocks for shelter.
9Evil people make slaves of fatherless infants
and take the children of the poor in payment for debts.
10But the poor must go out with no clothes to protect them;
they must go hungry while harvesting wheat.
11They press olives for oil, and grapes for wine,
but they themselves are thirsty.
12In the cities the wounded and dying cry out,
but God ignores their prayers.
13There are those who reject the light;
they don't understand it or go where it leads.
14At dawn the murderer gets up
and goes out to kill the poor,
and at night he steals.
15The adulterer waits for twilight to come;
he covers his face so that no one can see him.
16At night thieves break into houses,
but by day they hide and avoid the light.
17They fear the light of day,
but darkness holds no terror for them.
[Zophar]#24.18 heading Zophar is not named in the text, but this speech is usually assigned to him.
18The wicked are swept away by floods,
and the land they own is under God's curse;
they no longer go to work in their vineyards.
19As snow vanishes in heat and drought,
so sinners vanish from the land of the living.
20Not even their mothers remember them now;
they are eaten by worms and destroyed like fallen trees.
21That happens because they ill-treated widows
and showed no kindness to childless women.
22God, in his strength, destroys the mighty;
God acts — and the wicked die.
23God may let them live secure,
but keeps an eye on them all the time.
24For a while the wicked prosper,
but then they wither like weeds,
like ears of corn that have been cut off.
25Can anyone deny that this is so?
Can anyone prove that my words are not true?
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Good News Bible with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.