Job 24

Job’s Eighth Speech, Continued

1 "Why are not times kept by Shaddai,

and why do not those who know him see his days?

2 They*Or "Some" (NASU, ESV) or "Men" (NIV, NET) remove border stones;

they seize flocks, and they pasture them.

3 They drive away the donkey of orphans;

they take the widow’s ox as a pledge.

4 They thrust the poor off the road;

the needy of the earth hide themselves together.*Or "altogether"

5 "Look, like wild donkeys in the desert

they*That is, the poor go out to their labor as searchers for the prey;

the wilderness is*Or "provides" their*Hebrew "for their" food for the young.

6 They reap their*Hebrew "his" fodder in the field,

and they glean in the vineyard of the wicked.

7 They spend the night naked, without*Literally "from not" clothing,

and they have no garment in the cold.

8 They are wet from the rainstorm of the mountains,*Or "from the mountain rainstorm"

and they cling to the rock without*Literally "from not" refuge.

9 "They*That is, those who oppress the poor snatch the orphan from the breast,

and they take a pledge against the needy.*Or "And they take the child of the needy as a pledge"

10 They*That is, the poor go about naked, without clothing,

and hungry, they carry the sheaves.*Or "and they carry the sheaves though hungry"

11 Between their terraces they press out oil;

they tread the presses, but*Hebrew "and" they are thirsty.

12 From the city people groan,

and the throat*Or "soul," or "inner self" of the wounded cries for help;

yet*Hebrew "and" God does not regard it as unseemly.*Literally "he puts offensiveness"

13 "Those are among the ones rebelling against the light;

they do not recognize his ways,

and they do not stay in his paths.

14 At dusk*Literally "At the light" the murderer rises;

he kills the needy and the poor,

and in the night he is like a*Or "the" thief.

15 And the eye of the adulterer waits for dusk,

saying, ‘No eye will see me,’*Literally " ‘An eye will not see me’ "

and he places a covering on his face.

16 He digs through houses in the darkness;

by day they shut themselves in—

they do not know the light

17 because morning likewise is to them deep darkness;

indeed, they know about the terrors of deep darkness.

18 "He himself*Emphatic personal pronoun is swift on the water’s surface;

their portion is cursed in the land.

No one turns toward the path of their vineyards.*Literally "He does not turn toward the path of the vineyard"

19 Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters,

like Sheol snatches away those*Or "they/them" who have sinned.

20 The womb forgets him.

The maggot feasts on him until he is no longer remembered,

and wickedness is broken like a*Or "the" tree.

21 He feeds on the barren, who does not have a child,

and does no good to the widow.

22 Yet*Hebrew "And" he*The probable antecedent is God carries off the tyrants by his strength;

if he rises up, then*Hebrew "and" he*The antecedent of the singular here probably changes to the wicked person cannot be certain of life.*Hebrew "the life"

23 He*The probable antecedent is God gives security to him, and he is*Or "they are" supported,

but*Hebrew "and" his eyes are upon their ways.

24 They are exalted a little while, then*Literally "and" they are gone.*Literally "he is not"

And they are brought low; they are cut off like all others,

and like the heads of grain they wither away.

25 "And if it is not so, then who can prove me a liar

and reduce my word to nothing?"