Job 24
Living Bible
24 “Why doesn’t God open the court and listen to my case? Why must the godly wait for him in vain? 2 For a crime wave has engulfed us—landmarks are moved, flocks of sheep are stolen, 3 and even the donkeys of the poor and fatherless are taken. Poor widows must surrender the little they have as a pledge to get a loan. 4 The needy are kicked aside; they must get out of the way. 5 Like the wild donkeys in the desert, the poor must spend all their time just getting barely enough to keep soul and body together. They are sent into the desert to search for food for their children. 6 They eat what they find that grows wild and must even glean the vineyards of the wicked. 7 All night they lie naked in the cold, without clothing or covering. 8 They are wet with the showers of the mountains and live in caves for want of a home.
9 “The wicked snatch fatherless children from their mother’s breasts, and take a poor man’s baby as a pledge before they will loan him any money or grain. 10 That is why they must go about naked, without clothing, and are forced to carry food while they are starving. 11 They are forced to press out the olive oil without tasting it and to tread out the grape juice as they suffer from thirst. 12 The bones of the dying cry from the city; the wounded cry for help; yet God does not respond to their moaning.
13 “The wicked rebel against the light and are not acquainted with the right and the good. 14-15 They are murderers who rise in the early dawn to kill the poor and needy; at night they are thieves and adulterers, waiting for the twilight ‘when no one will see me,’ they say. They mask their faces so no one will know them. 16 They break into houses at night and sleep in the daytime—they are not acquainted with the light. 17 The black night is their morning; they ally themselves with the terrors of the darkness.
18 “But how quickly they disappear from the face of the earth. Everything they own is cursed. They leave no property for their children. 19 Death consumes sinners as drought and heat consume snow. 20 Even the sinner’s own mother shall forget him. Worms shall feed sweetly on him. No one will remember him anymore. For wicked men are broken like a tree in the storm. 21 For they have taken advantage of the childless who have no protecting sons. They refuse to help the needy widows.
22-23 “Yet sometimes[a] it seems as though God preserves the rich by his power and restores them to life when anyone else would die. God gives them confidence and strength, and helps them in many ways. 24 But though they are very great now, yet in a moment they shall be gone like all others, cut off like heads of grain. 25 Can anyone claim otherwise? Who can prove me a liar and claim that I am wrong?”
Footnotes
- Job 24:22 Yet sometimes, implied.
Job 24
EasyEnglish Bible
Job continues to speak[a]
24 Why has Almighty God not yet decided the time
when he will judge wicked people?
People who serve him faithfully continue to wait for justice.
2 Wicked men move the stones that show the edge of their neighbour's land.[b]
They take their neighbour's land and his sheep for themselves.
3 They take away a donkey
that belongs to a child who has no family.
They take an ox away from a widow,
when they lend money to her.
4 They stop poor people from receiving justice.
Poor people have to run away from them and hide.
5 Poor people have to look for food to eat,
like wild donkeys in the desert.
They have to find food for their children to eat.
6 They find grain in the fields of other people.
They pick grapes that remain in the vineyards of wicked people.
7 They have no clothes to wear during the cold nights.
They sleep without anything to cover themselves.
8 The rain that falls in the mountains makes them very wet.
So they hide among the rocks where they try to keep dry.
9 When wicked people lend money to poor people,
they even take a child whose father has died away from his mother.
10 Poor people have to go out with no clothes to wear.
They are hungry while they carry the crops of other people.
11 They squeeze oil from olives
that grow in the fields of other people.
They also make wine from other people's grapes.
But they themselves are thirsty.
12 In the cities, people who are dying cry with pain.
They call for help,
but God does not punish the people who have hurt them.
13 Some people refuse to live in the light.
They do not understand it.
They do not go along the good way that it shows to them.
14 Murderers rob people when it is still dark.
They kill poor, weak people during the night.
15 Adulterers wait until it is becoming dark.
They think that no one will see them.
They cover their faces
so that no one will recognize them.
16 Robbers go into people's homes in the dark
to take away their things.
But they stay inside during the day.
They never go out in the light.
17 They all like to do evil things at night,
rather than in the light of morning.
They are not afraid of things that happen in the dark,
as other people are.
18 You may say, “Floods of water carry away wicked people.[c]
God curses the land that belongs to them.
Nobody goes to work in their vineyards.
19 Snow soon disappears
when the weather is very hot or very dry.
In the same way, death quickly takes away people who do bad things.
20 Their mothers soon forget them.
Worms eat their bodies.
No one remembers those wicked people.
They are like dead trees that people have cut down.
21 Those wicked people are cruel to women who have no children.
They are not kind to widows.
22 But God uses his strength to remove powerful people.
When he attacks wicked people,
their lives are in his hands.
23 God allows them to feel safe.
But he is always watching everything that they do.
24 Wicked people may have success for a short time,
but suddenly they disappear!
Like everyone else, they fall to the ground.
They become like crops that people cut down at harvest time.”
25 What I have said is true.
Nobody can say that I am telling lies.
You cannot think that my words are useless.’
Footnotes
- 24:1 In chapter 24, Job speaks about the bad things that happen in the world. He does not understand why God does not punish bad people. Then he remembers that bad people die in the end, like everyone else.
- 24:2 See Deuteronomy 19:14; 27:17.
- 24:18 In verses 18–24, Job seems to be repeating things that his friends have been saying. They are not things that he himself agrees with.
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