CHAPTER 24
1 Why are dire times not stored by Shaddai
and those who know Him behold not his days?
2 They set aside boundary stones,
a flock they steal and pasture it.
3The orphans’ donkey they drive off, they take in pawn the widow’s ox.
9[ They steal the orphan from the breast,
and the poor man’s suckling they take in pawn.]
4They push the paupers from the road,
together the earth’s poor go in hiding.
5Why, like wild asses in the wilderness
they go forth on their task
searching for food,
the steppe offers bread to the lads.
6In the field they harvest their fodder,
glean leavings from the wicked’s vineyard,
7naked, pass the night with no garment
and no clothing in the cold.
8By the mountain stream they are soaked
and unsheltered they hug a rock.
10Naked, they go round with no garment,
and hungry, they carry the sheaf.
11In the groves they make olive oil,
they trample the winepresses and they thirst.
12From the town the folk groan,
the dying breath of the fallen cries out,
and God finds no cause for blame.
13They joined the rebels against the light,
they did not know its ways,
and they did not dwell in its paths.
14 By light the murderer rises,
he slays the poor and the indigent,
and at night he is like a thief.
15The adulterer’s eye watches for twilight,
saying, “No eye will make me out.”
He puts a mask on his face.
16They tunnel by dark into houses.
By day they seal themselves up.
They do not know light.
17 For morning to all them is death’s shadow
when they know the terrors of death’s shadow.
18 Let him be swiftly swept off on the waters,
cursed be his field in the land.
Let him not turn on the vineyard path.
19Parched land and heat steal away the snow;
20Let the womb forget him.
He is sweet to the worm.
Let him no more be recalled,
and let wickedness break like wood.
21Let his mate be barren and not give birth,
left a widow denied of good.
22 He who hauled bulls with his strength
will stand up and not trust in his life.
23 Though God grant him safety on which he relies,
His eyes are on their ways:
24They are on top a moment and are gone.
Laid low, like the weeds they shrivel,
and like heads of grain they wither.
25If it be not so, who will give me the lie,
and render my word as naught?