150 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
150 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
Job Asks Why the Wicked Are Not Punished
|
|
|
|
# Chapter 24
|
|
1. "Why doesn't the Almighty bring the wicked to judgment?
|
|
|
|
Why must the godly wait for him in vain?
|
|
|
|
|
|
2. Evil people steal land by moving the boundary markers.
|
|
|
|
They steal livestock and put them in their own pastures.
|
|
|
|
|
|
3. They take the orphan's donkey
|
|
|
|
and demand the widow's ox as security for a loan.
|
|
|
|
|
|
4. The poor are pushed off the path;
|
|
|
|
the needy must hide together for safety.
|
|
|
|
|
|
5. Like wild donkeys in the wilderness,
|
|
|
|
the poor must spend all their time looking for food,
|
|
|
|
searching even in the desert for food for their children.
|
|
|
|
|
|
6. They harvest a field they do not own,
|
|
|
|
and they glean in the vineyards of the wicked.
|
|
|
|
|
|
7. All night they lie naked in the cold,
|
|
|
|
without clothing or covering.
|
|
|
|
|
|
8. They are soaked by mountain showers,
|
|
|
|
and they huddle against the rocks for want of a home.
|
|
|
|
|
|
9. "The wicked snatch a widow's child from her breast,
|
|
|
|
taking the baby as security for a loan.
|
|
|
|
|
|
10. The poor must go about naked, without any clothing.
|
|
|
|
They harvest food for others while they themselves are starving.
|
|
|
|
|
|
11. They press out olive oil without being allowed to taste it,
|
|
|
|
and they tread in the winepress as they suffer from thirst.
|
|
|
|
|
|
12. The groans of the dying rise from the city,
|
|
|
|
and the wounded cry for help,
|
|
|
|
yet God ignores their moaning.
|
|
|
|
|
|
13. "Wicked people rebel against the light.
|
|
|
|
They refuse to acknowledge its ways
|
|
|
|
or stay in its paths.
|
|
|
|
|
|
14. The murderer rises in the early dawn
|
|
|
|
to kill the poor and needy;
|
|
|
|
at night he is a thief.
|
|
|
|
|
|
15. The adulterer waits for the twilight,
|
|
|
|
saying, 'No one will see me then.'
|
|
|
|
He hides his face so no one will know him.
|
|
|
|
|
|
16. Thieves break into houses at night
|
|
|
|
and sleep in the daytime.
|
|
|
|
They are not acquainted with the light.
|
|
|
|
|
|
17. The black night is their morning.
|
|
|
|
They ally themselves with the terrors of the darkness.
|
|
|
|
|
|
18. "But they disappear like foam down a river.
|
|
|
|
Everything they own is cursed,
|
|
|
|
and they are afraid to enter their own vineyards.
|
|
|
|
|
|
19. The grave consumes sinners
|
|
|
|
just as drought and heat consume snow.
|
|
|
|
|
|
20. Their own mothers will forget them.
|
|
|
|
Maggots will find them sweet to eat.
|
|
|
|
No one will remember them.
|
|
|
|
Wicked people are broken like a tree in the storm.
|
|
|
|
|
|
21. They cheat the woman who has no son to help her.
|
|
|
|
They refuse to help the needy widow.
|
|
|
|
|
|
22. "God, in his power, drags away the rich.
|
|
|
|
They may rise high, but they have no assurance of life.
|
|
|
|
|
|
23. They may be allowed to live in security,
|
|
|
|
but God is always watching them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
24. And though they are great now,
|
|
|
|
in a moment they will be gone like all others,
|
|
|
|
cut off like heads of grain.
|
|
|
|
|
|
25. Can anyone claim otherwise?
|
|
|
|
Who can prove me wrong?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|