² “People move boundary markers.
    They steal flocks and tend them as shepherds.
³ They drive away the orphan’s donkey.
    They take the widow’s ox as security for a loan.
⁴ They force needy people off the road.
    All the poor people of the country go into hiding.
⁵ Like wild donkeys in the desert,
    poor people go out to do their work, looking for food.
        The plains provide food for their children.
⁶         They harvest animal food in the field to feed themselves.
        They pick the leftover grapes in the wicked person’s vineyard.
⁷ All night they lie naked
    without a covering from the cold.
⁸ They are drenched by the rainstorms in the mountains.
    They hug the rocks because they can’t find shelter.

⁹ “People snatch the nursing orphan from a breast
    and take a poor woman’s baby as security for a loan.
¹⁰ That is why the poor go around naked.
    They are hungry, yet they carry bundles of grain.
¹¹ They press out olive oil between rows of olive trees.
    They stomp on grapes in wine vats, yet they are thirsty.
¹² Those dying in the city groan.
    Wounded people cry for help,
    but Eloah pays no attention to their prayers.

¹³ “Such people are among those who rebel against the light.
    They are not acquainted with its ways.
        They do not stay on its paths.
¹⁴ At dawn murderers rise; they kill the poor and needy.
    At night they become thieves.
¹⁵ Adulterers watch for twilight.
    They say, ‘No one is watching us,’ as they cover their faces.
¹⁶ In the dark, they break into houses,
    but by day they lock themselves in.
    They do not even know the light,
¹⁷ because morning and deep darkness are the same to them,
    because they are familiar with the terrors of deep darkness.
¹⁸ Such people are like scum on the surface of the water.
    Their property is cursed in the land.
    People do not travel the road that goes to their vineyards.
¹⁹ Just as drought and heat steal water from snow,
    so the grave steals people who sin.
²⁰ The womb forgets them.
    Worms feast on them.
        No one remembers them anymore,
            and wickedness is snapped like a twig.
²¹ These men take advantage of childless women.
    These men show no kindness to widows.
²² God will drag away these mighty men by his power.
    These people may prosper,
        but they will never feel secure about life.
²³ God may let them feel confident and self-reliant,
    but his eyes are on their ways.
²⁴ Such people may be prosperous for a little while,
    but then they’re gone.
    They are brought down low and disappear like everything else.^[a]
    They wither like heads of grain.

²⁵ “If it isn’t so, who can prove I’m a liar
    and show that my words are worthless?”