The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Job 24
1 “Why aren’t times laid up by the
Almighty? Why don’tthose who know him seehis
days?
2 There are people who remove the landmarks.
They violently take away flocks, and
feed them.
3 They drive away the donkey ofthe fatherless,
and they take the widow’s ox for a
pledge.
4 They turn the needy out of the way.
The poor of the earth all hide themselves.
5 Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert,
they go out to their work, seeking diligently for food.
The wilderness yields them bread for their
children.
6 They cut their food in the field.
They glean the vineyard of the wicked.
7 They lie all night naked without
clothing, and have no covering in the cold.
8 They are wet with the showers of the
mountains, and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter.
9 There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast,
and take a pledge of the poor,
10 so that they go around naked without clothing.
Being hungry, they carry the sheaves.
11 They make oil within the walls of these
men. They tread wine presses, and suffer
thirst.
12 From out of the populous city, men
groan. The soul of the wounded cries out,
yet God doesn’t regard the folly.
13 “These are ofthose who rebel againstthe
light. They don’t know its ways,
nor stay in its paths.
14 The murderer rises with the light.
He kills the poor and needy.
In the night he is like a thief.
15 The eye also of the adulterer waits for
the twilight, saying, ‘No eye will see me.’
He disguises his face.
16 In the dark they dig through houses.
They shut themselves up in the daytime.
They don’t know the light.
17 For the morning is to all of them like
thick darkness, for they know the terrors of the thick
darkness.
18 “They are foam on the surface of the
waters. Their portion is cursed in the earth.
They don’t turn into the way of the
vineyards.
19 Drought and heat consume the snow
waters, so does Sheol† those who have sinned.
20 The womb will forget him.
The worm will feed sweetly on him.
He will be no more remembered.
Unrighteousness will be broken as a
tree.
21 He devours the barren who don’t bear.
He shows no kindness to the widow.
22 Yet God preserves the mighty by his
power. He rises up who has no assurance of
life.
23 God gives them security, and they rest in
it. His eyes are on their ways.
24 They are exalted; yet a little while, and
they are gone. Yes, they are brought low, they are
taken out of the way as all others,
and are cut off as the tops ofthe ears of
grain.
25 Ifitisn’t so now, who will prove me a liar,
and make my speech worth nothing?”