Chapter 24

Why are not times treasured up with the Almighty? why do not they that know him see his days?

They remove the landmarks; they violently take away the flocks and pasture them;

They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow's ox for a pledge;

They turn the needy out of the way: the afflicted of the land all hide themselves.

Lo, [as] wild asses in the desert, they go forth to their work, seeking early for the prey: the wilderness [yieldeth] them food for [their] children.

They reap in the field the fodder thereof, and they gather the vintage of the wicked;

They pass the night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold;

They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and for want of a shelter embrace the rock ...

They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor:

These go naked without clothing, and, hungry, they bear the sheaf;

They press out oil within their walls, they tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst.

Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out; and +God imputeth not the impiety.

There are those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.

The murderer riseth with the light, killeth the afflicted and needy, and in the night is as a thief.

And the eye of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me; and he putteth a covering on [his] face.

In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves in; they know not the light:

For the morning is to them all [as] the shadow of death; for they are familiar with the terrors of the shadow of death.

He is swift on the face of the waters; their portion is cursed on the earth: he turneth not unto the way of the vineyards.

Drought and heat consume snow waters; so doth Sheol those that have sinned.

The womb forgetteth him; the worm feedeth sweetly on him: he shall be no more remembered; and unrighteousness is broken as a tree, --

He that despoileth the barren that beareth not, and doeth not good to the widow:

He draweth also the mighty with his power; he riseth up, and no [man] is sure of life.

[God] setteth him in safety, and he resteth thereon; but his eyes are upon their ways.

They are exalted for a little, and are no more; they are laid low; like all [other] are they gathered, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.

If it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?