Job 24:1-12

Common English Bible

24 Why doesn’t the Almighty establish times for punishment?^[a]
    Why can’t those who know him see his days?
² People move boundary stones,
        herd flocks they’ve stolen,
³     drive off an orphan’s donkey,
        take a widow’s ox as collateral,
⁴     thrust the poor out of the way,
        make the land’s needy hide together.
⁵ They are like the wild donkeys in the desert;
    they go forth at dawn searching for prey;
        the wasteland is food for their young.
⁶ They gather their food in the field,
    glean in unproductive vineyards,
⁷     spend the night naked, unclothed,
        in the cold without a cover,
⁸     wet from mountain rains,
        with no refuge, huddled against a rock.
⁹ The orphan is stolen from the breast;
    the infant^[b] of the poor is taken as collateral.
¹⁰ The poor go around naked, without clothes,
    carry bundles of grain while hungry,
¹¹     crush olives between millstones,^[c]
    tread winepresses, but remain thirsty.
¹² From the city, the dying cry out;
    the throat of the mortally wounded screams, but God assigns no blame.