Job 24:12-25

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

¹³ “There are those who rebel against the light,
    who are not acquainted with its ways,
    and do not stay in its paths.
¹⁴ The murderer rises at dusk
    to kill the poor and needy,
    and in the night is like a thief.
¹⁵ The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight,
    saying, ‘No eye will see me’;
    and he disguises his face.
¹⁶ In the dark they dig through houses;
    by day they shut themselves up;
    they do not know the light.
¹⁷ For deep darkness is morning to all of them;
    for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.

¹⁸ “Swift are they on the face of the waters;
    their portion in the land is cursed;
    no treader turns toward their vineyards.
¹⁹ Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters;
    so does Sheol those who have sinned.
²⁰ The womb forgets them;
    the worm finds them sweet;
they are no longer remembered;
    so wickedness is broken like a tree.

²¹ “They harm^[a] the childless woman,
    and do no good to the widow.
²² Yet God^[b] prolongs the life of the mighty by his power;
    they rise up when they despair of life.
²³ He gives them security, and they are supported;
    his eyes are upon their ways.
²⁴ They are exalted a little while, and then are gone;
    they wither and fade like the mallow;^[c]
    they are cut off like the heads of grain.
²⁵ If it is not so, who will prove me a liar,
    and show that there is nothing in what I say?”