Job

Job’s Eighth Speech, Continued

24 
“Why are not times kept by Shaddai,

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

They[a] remove border stones;

they seize flocks, and they pasture them.

They drive away the donkey of orphans;

they take the widow’s ox as a pledge.

They thrust the poor off the road;

the needy of the earth hide themselves together.[b]

“Look, like wild donkeys in the desert

they[c] go out to their labor as searchers for the prey;

the wilderness is[d] their[e] food for the young.

They reap their[f] fodder in the field,

and they glean in the vineyard of the wicked.

They spend the night naked, without[g] clothing,

and they have no garment in the cold.

They are wet from the rainstorm of the mountains,[h]

and they cling to the rock without[i] refuge.

“They[j] snatch the orphan from the breast,

and they take a pledge against the needy.[k]

10 They[l] go about naked, without clothing,

and hungry, they carry the sheaves.[m]

11 Between their terraces they press out oil;

they tread the presses, but[n] they are thirsty.

12 From the city people groan,

and the throat[o] of the wounded cries for help;

yet[p] God does not regard it as unseemly.[q]

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[r] the murderer rises;

he kills the needy and the poor,

and in the night he is like a[s] thief.

15 And the eye of the adulterer waits for dusk,

saying, ‘No eye will see me,’[t]

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[u] is swift on the water’s surface;

their portion is cursed in the land.

No one turns toward the path of their vineyards.[v]

19 Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters,

like Sheol snatches away those[w] 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[x] tree.

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

and does no good to the widow.

22 Yet[y] he[z] carries off the tyrants by his strength;

if he rises up, then[aa] he[ab] cannot be certain of life.[ac]

23 He[ad] gives security to him, and he is[ae] supported,

but[af] his eyes are upon their ways.

24 They are exalted a little while, then[ag] they are gone.[ah]

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?”

Footnotes

  1. Job 24:2 Or “Some” (NASU, ESV) or “Men” (NIV, NET)
  2. Job 24:4 Or “altogether”
  3. Job 24:5 That is, the poor
  4. Job 24:5 Or “provides”
  5. Job 24:5 Hebrew “for their”
  6. Job 24:6 Hebrew “his”
  7. Job 24:7 Literally “from not”
  8. Job 24:8 Or “from the mountain rainstorm”
  9. Job 24:8 Literally “from not”
  10. Job 24:9 That is, those who oppress the poor
  11. Job 24:9 Or “And they take the child of the needy as a pledge”
  12. Job 24:10 That is, the poor
  13. Job 24:10 Or “and they carry the sheaves though hungry”
  14. Job 24:11 Hebrew “and”
  15. Job 24:12 Or “soul,” or “inner self”
  16. Job 24:12 Hebrew “and”
  17. Job 24:12 Literally “he puts offensiveness”
  18. Job 24:14 Literally “At the light”
  19. Job 24:14 Or “the”
  20. Job 24:15 Literally “‘An eye will not see me’”
  21. Job 24:18 Emphatic personal pronoun
  22. Job 24:18 Literally “He does not turn toward the path of the vineyard”
  23. Job 24:19 Or “they/them”
  24. Job 24:20 Or “the”
  25. Job 24:22 Hebrew “And”
  26. Job 24:22 The probable antecedent is God
  27. Job 24:22 Hebrew “and”
  28. Job 24:22 The antecedent of the singular here probably changes to the wicked person
  29. Job 24:22 Hebrew “the life”
  30. Job 24:23 The probable antecedent is God
  31. Job 24:23 Or “they are”
  32. Job 24:23 Hebrew “and”
  33. Job 24:24 Literally “and”
  34. Job 24:24 Literally “he is not”