NET Bible

The Apparent Indifference of God

^24:1 “Why are times not appointed by the Almighty? Why do those who know him not see his days? ^24:2 Men move boundary stones; they seize the flock and pasture them. ^24:3 They drive away the orphan’s donkey; they take the widow’s ox as a pledge. ^24:4 They turn the needy from the pathway, and the poor of the land hide themselves together. ^24:5 Like wild donkeys in the wilderness, they go out to their labor seeking diligently for food; the arid rift valley provides food for them and for their children. ^24:6 They reap fodder in the field and glean in the vineyard of the wicked. ^24:7 They spend the night naked because they lack clothing; they have no covering against the cold. ^24:8 They are soaked by mountain rains and huddle in the rocks because they lack shelter. ^24:9 The fatherless child is snatched from the breast; the infant of the poor is taken as a pledge. ^24:10 They go about naked, without clothing, and go hungry while they carry the sheaves. ^24:11 They press out the olive oil between the rows of olive trees; they tread the winepresses while they are thirsty. ^24:12 From the city the dying groan, and the wounded cry out for help, but God charges no one with wrongdoing. ^24:13 There are those who rebel against the light; they do not know its ways, and they do not stay on its paths. ^24:14 Before daybreak the murderer rises up; he kills the poor and the needy; in the night he is like a thief. ^24:15 And the eye of the adulterer watches for the twilight, thinking, ‘No eye can see me,’ and covers his face with a mask. ^24:16 In the dark the robber breaks into houses, but by day they shut themselves in; they do not know the light. ^24:17 For all of them, the morning is to them like deep darkness; they are friends with the terrors of darkness. ^24:18 You say, ‘He is foam on the face of the waters; their portion of the land is cursed so that no one goes to their vineyard. ^24:19 The drought as well as the heat snatch up the melted snow; so the grave snatches up the sinner. ^24:20 The womb forgets him, the worm feasts on him, no longer will he be remembered. Like a tree, wickedness will be broken down. ^24:21 He preys on the barren and childless woman and does not treat the widow well. ^24:22 But God drags off the mighty by his power; when God rises up against him, he has no faith in his life. ^24:23 God may let them rest in a feeling of security, but he is constantly watching all their ways. ^24:24 They are exalted for a little while, and then they are gone; they are brought low like all others and gathered in, and like a head of grain they are cut off.’ ^24:25 “If this is not so, who can prove me a liar and reduce my words to nothing?”