1 Why doesn't God set a time for judging,
a day of justice for those who serve him?
2 People move property lines to get more land;
they steal sheep and put them with their own flocks.
3 They take donkeys that belong to orphans,
and keep a widow's ox till she pays her debts.
4 They prevent the poor from getting their rights
and force the needy to run and hide.
5 So the poor, like wild donkeys,
search for food in the dry wilderness;
nowhere else can they find food for their children.
6 They have to harvest fields they don't own,
and gather grapes in vineyards of the wicked.
7 At night they sleep with nothing to cover them,
nothing to keep them from the cold.
8 They are drenched by the rain that falls on the mountains,
and they huddle beside the rocks for shelter.
9 Evil people make slaves of fatherless infants
and take the children of the poor in payment for debts.
10 But the poor must go out with no clothes to protect them;
they must go hungry while harvesting wheat.
11 They press olives for oil, and grapes for wine,
but they themselves are thirsty.
12 In the cities the wounded and dying cry out,
but God ignores their prayers.
13 There are those who reject the light;
they don't understand it or go where it leads.
14 At dawn the murderer gets up
and goes out to kill the poor,
and at night he steals.
15 The adulterer waits for twilight to come;
he covers his face so that no one can see him.
16 At night thieves break into houses,
but by day they hide and avoid the light.
17 They fear the light of day,
but darkness holds no terror for them.
[Zophar]
18 The wicked are swept away by floods,
and the land they own is under God's curse;
they no longer go to work in their vineyards.
19 As snow vanishes in heat and drought,
so sinners vanish from the land of the living.
20 Not even their mothers remember them now;
they are eaten by worms and destroyed like fallen trees.
21 That happens because they mistreated widows
and showed no kindness to childless women.
22 God, in his strength, destroys the mighty;
God acts—and the wicked die.
23 God may let them live secure,
but keeps an eye on them all the time.
24 For a while the wicked prosper,
but then they wither like weeds,
like stalks of grain that have been cut down.
25 Can anyone deny that this is so?
Can anyone prove that my words are not true?
1 Howe should not the times be hid from the Almightie, seeing that they which knowe him, see not his dayes? 2 Some remoue the land marks, that rob the flockes and feede thereof. 3 They leade away the asse of the fatherles: and take the widowes oxe to pledge. 4 They make the poore to turne out of the way, so that the poore of the earth hide themselues together. 5 Behold, others as wilde asses in the wildernesse, goe forth to their businesse, and rise early for a praye: the wildernesse giueth him and his children foode. 6 They reape his prouision in the fielde, but they gather the late vintage of the wicked. 7 They cause the naked to lodge without garment, and without couering in the colde. 8 They are wet with the showres of the moutaines, and they imbrace the rocke for want of a couering. 9 They plucke the fatherles from the breast, and take the pledge of the poore. 10 They cause him to go naked without clothing, and take the glening from the hungrie. 11 They that make oyle betweene their walles, and treade their wine presses, suffer thirst. 12 Men cry out of the citie, and the soules of the slayne cry out: yet God doth not charge them with follie. 13 These are they, that abhorre the light: they know not the wayes thereof, nor continue in the paths thereof. 14 The murtherer riseth earely and killeth the poore and the needie: and in the night he is as a theefe. 15 The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, and sayth, None eye shall see me, and disguiseth his face. 16 They digge through houses in the darke, which they marked for themselues in the daye: they knowe not the light. 17 But the morning is euen to them as the shadow of death: if one knowe them, they are in the terrours of the shadowe of death. 18 He is swift vpon the waters: their portion shalbe cursed in the earth: he will not behold the way of the vineyardes. 19 As the dry ground and heate consume the snowe waters, so shall the graue the sinners. 20 The pitifull man shall forget him: the worme shall feele his sweetenes: he shalbe no more remembered, and the wicked shalbe broke like a tree. 21 He doth euil intreat ye barren, that doeth not beare, neither doeth he good to the widowe. 22 He draweth also the mighty by his power, and when he riseth vp, none is sure of life. 23 Though men giue him assurance to be in safetie, yet his eyes are vpon their wayes. 24 They are exalted for a litle, but they are gone, and are brought lowe as all others: they are destroyed, and cut off as the toppe of an eare of corne. 25 But if it be not so, where is he? or who wil proue me a lyer, and make my words of no value?