Job: Judgment for the Wicked
Why are times not stored up by the Almighty? And why do those who know him not see his days?
They move boundary stones; they seize a flock and pasture it.
They drive away the donkey of orphans; they take the widow’s ox in pledge.
They push the needy off the road; the poor of the earth hide themselves together.
Look, like wild donkeys in the wilderness they go out to their work, searching for prey; the desert plain gives him bread for the young.
In the field they harvest his 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 drenched by the mountain rains, and without shelter they hug a rock.
They tear the orphan from the breast, and take a pledge from the poor.
They go about naked, without clothing; and hungry, they carry the sheaf.
Between the rows of their oppressors they press oil; they tread the winepresses and go thirsty.
Out of the city men groan, and the soul of the wounded cries for help; but God does not charge it with unseemliness.
They are among those who rebel against the light; they do not recognize its ways, and they do not stay in its paths.
At the light the murderer rises; he kills the poor and needy; and in the night he is like a thief.
And the eye of the adulterer watches for twilight, saying, “No eye will glimpse me”; and he puts a covering on his face.
In the darkness he digs through houses; by day they shut themselves up; they do not know the light.
For morning is to them all the shadow of death; for one knows the terrors of the shadow of death.
He is light on the face of the waters; their portion in the land is cursed; he does not turn toward the way of the vineyards.
Drought and heat seize the snow-waters; so does Sheol those who have sinned.
The womb forgets him; the maggot finds him sweet; he is remembered no more; and injustice is broken like a tree.
He feeds on the barren who does not bear, and does no good to the widow.
And he drags off the mighty by his power; he rises up, and no one is sure of life.
He gives him safety, and he is supported; and his eyes are on their ways.
They are exalted a little, and are not; and they are brought low, gathered in like all; and they wither like the head of a grain-stalk.
And if it is not so — who will prove me a liar, and make my word worth nothing?