24:1 | "Why does the Almighty not set times for judgment? Why must those who know him look in vain for such days? |
24:2 | Men move boundary stones; they pasture flocks they have stolen. |
24:3 | They drive away the orphan's donkey and take the widow's ox in pledge. |
24:4 | They thrust the needy from the path and force all the poor of the land into hiding. |
24:5 | Like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go about their labor of foraging food; the wasteland provides food for their children. |
24:6 | They gather fodder in the fields and glean in the vineyards of the wicked. |
24:7 | Lacking clothes, they spend the night naked; they have nothing to cover themselves in the cold. |
24:8 | They are drenched by mountain rains and hug the rocks for lack of shelter. |
24:9 | The fatherless child is snatched from the breast; the infant of the poor is seized for a debt. |
24:10 | Lacking clothes, they go about naked; they carry the sheaves, but still go hungry. |
24:11 | They crush olives among the terraces; they tread the winepresses, yet suffer thirst. |
24:12 | The groans of the dying rise from the city, and the souls of the wounded cry out for help. But God charges no one with wrongdoing. |
24:13 | "There are those who rebel against the light, who do not know its ways or stay in its paths. |
24:14 | When daylight is gone, the murderer rises up and kills the poor and needy; in the night he steals forth like a thief. |
24:15 | The eye of the adulterer watches for dusk; he thinks, 'No eye will see me,' and he keeps his face concealed. |
24:16 | In the dark, men break into houses, but by day they shut themselves in; they want nothing to do with the light. |
24:17 | For all of them, deep darkness is their morning; they make friends with the terrors of darkness. |
24:18 | "Yet they are foam on the surface of the water; their portion of the land is cursed, so that no one goes to the vineyards. |
24:19 | As heat and drought snatch away the melted snow, so the grave snatches away those who have sinned. |
24:20 | The womb forgets them, the worm feasts on them; evil men are no longer remembered but are broken like a tree. |
24:21 | They prey on the barren and childless woman, and to the widow show no kindness. |
24:22 | But God drags away the mighty by his power; though they become established, they have no assurance of life. |
24:23 | He may let them rest in a feeling of security, but his eyes are on their ways. |
24:24 | For a little while they are exalted, and then they are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like all others; they are cut off like heads of grain. |
24:25 | "If this is not so, who can prove me false and reduce my words to nothing?" |
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