⁴ Does he correct you and take you to court
because of your piety?^(B)
5 Isn’t your wickedness abundant
and aren’t your iniquities endless?
⁶ For you took collateral^(C) from your brothers without cause,
stripping off their clothes and leaving them naked.
⁷ You gave no water to the thirsty
and withheld food from the famished,^(D)
8 while the land belonged to a powerful man
and an influential man lived on it.
⁹ You sent widows away empty-handed,
and the strength of the fatherless^(E) was^[a] crushed.
¹⁰ Therefore snares surround you,
and sudden dread terrifies^(F) you,
¹¹ or darkness, so you cannot see,
and a flood of water covers you.^(G)

¹² Isn’t God as high as the heavens?
And look at the highest stars—how lofty they are!
¹³ Yet you say, “What does God know?
Can he judge through total darkness?^(H)
14 Clouds^(I) veil him so that he cannot see,
as he walks on the circle of the sky.”
¹⁵ Will you continue on the ancient path
that wicked men have walked?
¹⁶ They were snatched away before their time,
and their foundations^(J) were washed away by a river.
¹⁷ They were the ones who said to God, “Leave us alone!”
and “What can the Almighty do to us?” ^[b](K)
18 But it was he who filled their houses with good things.
The counsel of the wicked is far from me!
¹⁹ The righteous see this and rejoice;
the innocent mock them, saying,^(L)
20 “Surely our opponents are destroyed,
and fire has consumed what they left behind.”^(M)

²¹ Come to terms with God and be at peace;^(N)
in this way^[c] good will come to you.
²² Receive instruction from his mouth,^(O)
and place his sayings^(P) in your heart.
²³ If you return^(Q) to the Almighty, you will be renewed.
If you banish injustice from your tent
²⁴ and consign your gold to the dust,
the gold of Ophir^(R) to the stones in the wadis,
²⁵ the Almighty will be your gold
and your finest silver.
²⁶ Then you will delight^(S) in the Almighty
and lift up your face to God.^(T)
27 You will pray to him, and he will hear you,^(U)
and you will fulfill your vows.
²⁸ When you make a decision, it will be carried out,^[d]
and light will shine on your ways.^(V)
29 When others are humiliated and you say, “Lift them up,”
God will save the humble.^[e](W)
30 He will even rescue the guilty one,
who will be rescued by the purity of your hands.^(X)

⁸ If I go east, he is not there,
and if I go west, I cannot perceive him.^(AD)
9 When he is at work to the north, I cannot see him;
when he turns south, I cannot find him.
¹⁰ Yet he knows the way I have taken;^[j]
when he has tested me,^(AE) I will emerge as pure gold.
¹¹ My feet have followed in his tracks;
I have kept to his way^(AF) and not turned aside.
¹² I have not departed from the commands from his lips;
I have treasured^[k] the words^(AG) from his mouth
more than my daily food.

¹³ But he is unchangeable; who can oppose him?
He does what he desires.^(AH)
14 He will certainly accomplish what he has decreed for me,
and he has many more things like these in mind.^[l]
15 Therefore I am terrified^(AI) in his presence;
when I consider this, I am afraid of him.
¹⁶ God has made my heart faint;^(AJ)
the Almighty has terrified me.
¹⁷ Yet I am not destroyed^[m] by the darkness,^(AK)
by the thick darkness that covers my face.

24 Why does the Almighty not reserve times for judgment?^(AL)
Why do those who know him never see his days?
² The wicked displace boundary markers.
They steal a flock and provide pasture for it.
³ They drive away the donkeys owned by the fatherless^(AM)
and take the widow’s ox as collateral.
⁴ They push the needy off the road;
the poor of the land are forced into hiding.^(AN)
5 Like wild donkeys in the wilderness,
the poor go out to their task of foraging for food;
the desert provides nourishment for their children.
⁶ They gather their fodder in the field
and glean the vineyards of the wicked.
⁷ Without clothing, they spend the night naked,
having no covering against the cold.^(AO)
8 Drenched by mountain rains,
they huddle against^[n] the rocks, shelterless.
⁹ The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast;
the nursing child of the poor is seized as collateral.^[o]
10 Without clothing, they wander about naked.
They carry sheaves but go hungry.^(AP)
11 They crush olives in their presses;^[p]
they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty.
¹² From the city, men^[q] groan;
the mortally wounded cry for help,
yet God pays no attention to this crime.^(AQ)

¹³ The wicked are those who rebel against the light.
They do not recognize its ways
or stay on its paths.
¹⁴ The murderer rises at dawn
to kill the poor and needy,
and by night he becomes a thief.
¹⁵ The adulterer’s eye watches for twilight,
thinking, “No eye will see me,”
and he covers his face.
¹⁶ In the dark they break^[r] into houses;
by day they lock themselves in,^[s]
never experiencing the light.
¹⁷ For the morning is like darkness to them.
Surely they are familiar with the terrors of darkness!

¹⁸ They float^[t] on the surface of the water.
Their section of the land is cursed,
so that they never go to their vineyards.
¹⁹ As dry ground and heat snatch away the melted snow,
so Sheol^(AR) steals those who have sinned.
²⁰ The womb forgets them;
worms feed on them;
they are remembered^(AS) no more.
So injustice is broken like a tree.
²¹ They prey on^[u] the childless woman who is unable to conceive,
and do not deal kindly with the widow.
²² Yet God drags away^[v] the mighty by his power;
when he rises up, they have no assurance of life.
²³ He gives them a sense of security, so they can rely on it,^(AT)
but his eyes^(AU) watch over their ways.
²⁴ They are exalted for a moment, then gone;
they are brought low and shrivel up like everything else.^[w]
They wither like heads of grain.^(AV)

²⁵ If this is not true, then who can prove me a liar^(AW)
and show that my speech is worthless?