1 Why doesn't God

set a time for court?

Why don't his people know

where he can be found?

2 Sinners remove boundary markers

and take care of sheep

they have stolen.

3 They cheat orphans and widows

by taking their donkeys

and oxen.

4 The poor are trampled

and forced to hide

5 in the desert,

where they and their children

must live like wild donkeys

and search for food.

6 If they want grain or grapes,*

they must go to the property

of these sinners.

7 They sleep naked in the cold,

because they have no cover,

8 and during a storm

their only shelters are caves

among the rocky cliffs.

9 Children whose fathers have died

are taken from their mothers

as payment for a debt.

10 Then they are forced to work

naked in the grain fields

because they have no clothes,

and they go hungry.

11 They crush olives to make oil

and grapes to make wine—

but still they go thirsty.

12 And along the city streets,

the wounded and dying cry out,

yet God does nothing.

13 Some rebel and refuse

to follow the light.

14 Soon after sunset they murder

the poor and the needy,

and at night they steal.

15 Others wait for the dark,

thinking they won't be seen

if they sleep with the wife

or husband of someone else.

16 Robbers hide during the day,

then break in after dark

because they reject the light.

17 They prefer night to day,

since the terrors of the night

are their friends.

18 Those sinners are filthy foam

on the surface of the water.

And so, their fields and vineyards

will fall under a curse

and won't produce.

19 Just as the heat of summer

swallows the snow,

the world of the dead

swallows those who sin.

20 Forgotten here on earth,

and with their power broken,

they taste sweet to worms.

21 Sinners take advantage of widows

and other helpless women.*

22 But God's mighty strength

destroys those in power.

Even if they seem successful,

they are doomed to fail.

23 God may let them feel secure,

but they are never

out of his sight.

24 Great for a while; gone forever!

Sinners are mowed down

like weeds,

then they wither and die.

25 If I haven't spoken the truth,

then prove me wrong.