Shared Word Translation
Job 24
Why Are Times of Judgment Hidden?
“Why are times not stored up by the Almighty?
Why do those who know him not see his days?
People move boundary markers;
they seize flocks and pasture them.
They drive away the donkey of the fatherless;
they take the widow’s ox as a pledge.
They turn the needy aside from the road;
the poor of the land hide themselves together.
The Poor Labor for Others
Look, like wild donkeys in the wilderness,
they go out to their work, seeking food;
the wasteland provides food
for them and for their children.
In the field they harvest another’s fodder,
and they glean the vineyard of the wicked.
They spend the night naked, without clothing,
and have no covering in the cold.
They are wet with the rain of the mountains,
and for lack of shelter they embrace the rock.
They tear the fatherless from the breast,
and they take a pledge against the poor.
Naked, they go about without clothing;
hungry, they carry sheaves.
Between their walls they press oil;
they tread winepresses, yet thirst.
From the city the dying groan,
and the life of the wounded cries out,
yet God does not charge it as folly.
Those Who Rebel Against the Light
These are among those who rebel against the light;
they do not recognize its ways
or remain in its paths.
At daylight the murderer rises;
he kills the poor and needy,
and in the night he becomes like a thief.
The eye of the adulterer waits for twilight,
saying, ‘No eye will see me,’
and he puts a covering on his face.
In darkness they break into houses;
by day they shut themselves in.
They do not know the light.
For morning is death-shadow to all of them,
for they recognize the terrors of death-shadow.
The Wicked May Be Carried Away
Swift is he upon the face of the waters;
their portion is cursed in the land;
he does not turn toward the way of the vineyards.
Drought and heat steal away snow waters;
so Sheol those who have sinned.
The womb forgets him;
the worm finds him sweet.
He is remembered no more,
and injustice is broken like a tree.
He devours the barren woman who does not give birth
and does no good to the widow.
Yet God draws the mighty away by his power;
he rises, and no one is sure of life.
He gives them security, and they lean upon it,
but his eyes are upon their ways.
They are exalted a little while, then they are gone;
they are brought low and gathered like all others;
they are cut off like the heads of grain.
If it is not so, who will prove me a liar
and make my word nothing?”