Job Complains of Violence on the Earth
1“Since times are not hidden from the Almighty,
Why do those who know Him see not His days?
2“Some remove landmarks;
They seize flocks violently and feed on them;
3They drive away the donkey of the fatherless;
They take the widow’s ox as a pledge.
4They push the needy off the road;
All the poor of the land are forced to hide.
5Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert,
They go out to their work, searching for food.
The wilderness yields food for them and for their children.
6They gather their fodder in the field
And glean in the vineyard of the wicked.
7They spend the night naked, without clothing,
And have no covering in the cold.
8They are wet with the showers of the mountains,
And huddle around the rock for want of shelter.
9“Some snatch the fatherless from the breast,
And take a pledge from the poor.
10They cause the poor to go naked, without clothing;
And they take away the sheaves from the hungry.
11They press out oil within their walls,
And tread winepresses, yet suffer thirst.
12The dying groan in the city,
And the souls of the wounded cry out;
Yet God does not charge them with wrong.
13“There are those who rebel against the light;
They do not know its ways
Nor abide in its paths.
14The murderer rises with the light;
He kills the poor and needy;
And in the night he is like a thief.
15The eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight,
Saying, ‘No eye will see me’;
And he 24:15 Lit. puts a covering on his facedisguises his face.
16In the dark they break into houses
Which they marked for themselves in the daytime;
They do not know the light.
17For the morning is the same to them as the shadow of death;
If someone recognizes them,
They are in the terrors of the shadow of death.
18“They should be swift on the face of the waters,
Their portion should be cursed in the earth,
So that no one would turn into the way of their vineyards.
19As drought and heat 24:19 Lit. seizeconsume the snow waters,
So 24:19 Or Sheolthe grave consumes those who have sinned.
20The womb should forget him,
The worm should feed sweetly on him;
He should be remembered no more,
And wickedness should be broken like a tree.
And does no good for the widow.
22“But God draws the mighty away with His power;
He rises up, but no man is sure of life.
23He gives them security, and they rely on it;
Yet His eyes are on their ways.
24They are exalted for a little while,
Then they are gone.
They are brought low;
They are 24:24 Lit. gathered uptaken out of the way like all others;
They dry out like the heads of grain.
And make my speech worth nothing?”
New King James Version®, Copyright© 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
