¹ “The actual day of judgment is known by the Almighty;
    why does he not reveal it to his faithful?^[b]
2 Those who are wicked move boundary stones;
    they seize flocks and pasture them.
³ They drive off the donkey belonging to the orphan;
    they take away the widow’s ox as security.
⁴ They push aside the needy off the road;
    those who are destitute are forced into hiding.
⁵ “Like wild donkeys of the wilderness
    the poor go forth at dawn
searching the wasteland for food
    with which to feed their children.
⁶ In the fields they reap what is not theirs
    and steal from the vineyards of the wicked.
⁷ Without clothing, they spend the night naked,
    lacking anything to shelter them from the cold.
⁸ They are soaked by the mountain rain
    and cling to the rocks as a source of shelter.
⁹ “The fatherless child is snatched from the breast
    and carried off as a pledge of security.
¹⁰ They go about their work naked, without clothing;
    despite their hunger they carry the sheaves.
¹¹ Along the pathways they press out the oil;
    they tread the winepresses but themselves suffer thirst.
¹² From the town the groans of the dying are heard,
    and those who are wounded cry out for help,
    yet God remains deaf to their prayer.
¹³ “There also are those who rebel against the light;
    they are ignorant of its ways
    and refuse to frequent its paths.
¹⁴ When nightfall descends, the murderer arises
    to slay the poor and the needy;
    during the night he steals forth like a thief.
¹⁵ “The eye of the adulterer also waits eagerly for twilight,
    thinking, ‘No eye will see me.’
¹⁶ In the darkness men break into houses,
    but during the day they shut themselves in,
    for they are strangers to daylight.
¹⁷ Deep darkness is morning to them;
    they only feel comfortable amid the terrors of the night.

¹⁸ “Such men are debris on the surface of the water;
    their portion in the land is accursed,
    and no laborer will toil in their vineyards.
¹⁹ As drought and heat melt the snow,
    so does the netherworld cause sinners to disappear.
²⁰ The womb that shaped them remembers them no more,
    and the worm sucks them dry.
²¹ “They maltreat the barren and childless woman
    and show no kindness to the widow.
²² God may sustain the mighty through his strength,
    but he carefully monitors their conduct.
²³ He grants them a sense of security,
    but his eyes are fixed on their ways.
²⁴ They are exalted for a while,
    and then they are gone;
they wither and fade like a flower,
    shriveling up like ears of grain.
²⁵ “If all this is not true, who will prove me wrong
    and show that my words are sheer nonsense?”