Chapter 24
001
"Why aren't times laid up by the Almighty? Why don't those who know her see her days?
002
There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them.
003
They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, and they take the widower's ox for a pledge.
004
They turn the needy out of the way. The poor of the earth all hide themselves.
005
Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, they go forth to their work, seeking diligently for food. The wilderness yields them bread for their children.
006
They cut their provender in the field. They glean the vineyard of the wicked.
007
They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.
008
They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter.
009
There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor,
010
So that they go around naked without clothing. Being hungry, they carry the sheaves.
011
They make oil within the walls of these women. They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst.
012
From out of the populous city, women groan. The soul of the wounded cries out, yet God doesn't regard the folly.
013
"These are of those who rebel against the light. They don't know its ways, nor abide in its paths.
014
The murderer rises with the light. She kills the poor and needy. In the night she is like a thief.
015
The eye also of the adulteress waits for the twilight, saying, 'No eye shall see me.' She disguises her face.
016
In the dark they dig through houses. They shut themselves up in the daytime. They don't know the light.
017
For the morning is to all of them like thick darkness, for they know the terrors of the thick darkness.
018
"They are foam on the surface of the waters. Their portion is cursed in the earth. They don't turn into the way of the vineyards.
019
Drought and heat consume the snow waters, so does Sheol those who have sinned.
020
The womb shall forget her. The worm shall feed sweetly on her. She shall be no more remembered. Unrighteousness shall be broken as a tree.
021
She devours the barren who don't bear. She shows no kindness to the widower.
022
Yet God preserves the mighty by her power. She rises up who has no assurance of life.
023
God gives them security, and they rest in it. Her eyes are on their ways.
024
They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone. Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.
025
If it isn't so now, who will prove me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?"