Job 24
24
1Why does the Almighty not reserve times for judgment?#Ec 9:12; Is 2:12; Ac 1:7
Why do those who know him never see his days?
2The wicked displace boundary markers.
They steal a flock and provide pasture for it.
3They drive away the donkeys owned by the fatherless#Dt 27:19; Jb 22:9; 31:21
and take the widow’s ox as collateral.
4They push the needy off the road;
the poor of the land are forced into hiding.#Jdg 5:6; Pr 28:28; Am 2:7
5Like wild donkeys in the wilderness,
the poor go out to their task of foraging for food;
the desert provides nourishment for their children.
6They gather their fodder in the field
and glean the vineyards of the wicked.
7Without clothing, they spend the night naked,
having no covering against the cold.#Ex 22:26–27; Dt 24:12–13; Jb 22:6
8Drenched by mountain rains,
they huddle against#24:8 Lit they embrace the rocks, shelterless.
9The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast;
the nursing child of the poor is seized as collateral.#24:9 Text emended; MT reads breast; they seize collateral against the poor
10Without clothing, they wander about naked.
They carry sheaves but go hungry.#Dt 24:19; 2Tm 2:6; Jms 5:4
11They crush olives in their presses;#24:11 Lit olives between their rows
they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty.
12From the city, men#24:12 One Hb ms, Syr read the dying groan;
the mortally wounded cry for help,
yet God pays no attention to this crime.#Jb 1:22; Ps 69:26
13The wicked are those who rebel against the light.
They do not recognize its ways
or stay on its paths.
14The murderer rises at dawn
to kill the poor and needy,
and by night he becomes a thief.
15The adulterer’s eye watches for twilight,
thinking, “No eye will see me,”
and he covers his face.
16In the dark they break#24:16 Lit dig into houses;
by day they lock themselves in,#24:16 Lit they seal for themselves
never experiencing the light.
17For the morning is like darkness to them.
Surely they are familiar with the terrors of darkness!
18They float#24:18 Lit are insignificant on the surface of the water.
Their section of the land is cursed,
so that they never go to their vineyards.
19As dry ground and heat snatch away the melted snow,
so Sheol#Jb 7:9; Ps 9:17; Pr 27:20 steals those who have sinned.
20The womb forgets them;
worms feed on them;
they are remembered#Jb 18:17; Pr 10:7; Jr 11:19 no more.
So injustice is broken like a tree.
21They prey on#24:21 LXX, Tg read They harm the childless woman who is unable to conceive,
and do not deal kindly with the widow.
22Yet God drags away#24:22 Or God prolongs the life of the mighty by his power;
when he rises up, they have no assurance of life.
23He gives them a sense of security, so they can rely on it,#Jb 11:18; Ps 4:8; Pr 3:24
but his eyes#Ps 11:4; Pr 15:3; Jr 16:17 watch over their ways.
24They are exalted for a moment, then gone;
they are brought low and shrivel up like everything else.#24:24 LXX reads like a mallow plant in the heat
They wither like heads of grain.#Jb 14:21; Ps 37:10; 106:43
25If this is not true, then who can prove me a liar#Jb 6:28; 27:4; 34:6
and show that my speech is worthless?
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Job 24: CSB
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© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
Job 24
24
An Illusion of Security
1-12“But if Judgment Day isn’t hidden from the Almighty,
why are we kept in the dark?
There are people out there getting by with murder—
stealing and lying and cheating.
They rip off the poor
and exploit the unfortunate,
Push the helpless into the ditch,
bully the weak so that they fear for their lives.
The poor, like stray dogs and cats,
scavenge for food in back alleys.
They sort through the garbage of the rich,
eke out survival on handouts.
Homeless, they shiver through cold nights on the street;
they’ve no place to lay their heads.
Exposed to the weather, wet and frozen,
they huddle in makeshift shelters.
Nursing mothers have their babies snatched from them;
the infants of the poor are kidnapped and sold.
They go about patched and threadbare;
even the hard workers go hungry.
No matter how backbreaking their labor,
they can never make ends meet.
People are dying right and left, groaning in torment.
The wretched cry out for help
and God does nothing, acts like nothing’s wrong!
13-17“Then there are those who avoid light at all costs,
who scorn the light-filled path.
When the sun goes down, the murderer gets up—
kills the poor and robs the defenseless.
Sexual predators can’t wait for nightfall,
thinking, ‘No one can see us now.’
Burglars do their work at night,
but keep well out of sight through the day.
They want nothing to do with light.
Deep darkness is morning for that bunch;
they make the terrors of darkness their companions in crime.
18-25“They are scraps of wood floating on the water—
useless, cursed junk, good for nothing.
As surely as snow melts under the hot, summer sun,
sinners disappear in the grave.
The womb has forgotten them, worms have relished them—
nothing that is evil lasts.
Unscrupulous,
they prey on those less fortunate.
However much they strut and flex their muscles,
there’s nothing to them. They’re hollow.
They may have an illusion of security,
but God has his eye on them.
They may get their brief successes,
but then it’s over, nothing to show for it.
Like yesterday’s newspaper,
they’re used to wrap up the garbage.
You’re free to try to prove me a liar,
but you won’t be able to do it.”
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.