Job 24:1-12

Evangelical Heritage Version

24 Why are appointments never scheduled by the Almighty?
Why do those who know him never see such days?
² People move boundary stones.
They steal a flock and take it to pasture.
³ They drive away donkeys that belong to the fatherless.
They seize the widow’s ox as collateral.
⁴ They shove the poor out of the way.
The oppressed people of the land hide together.
⁵ They go out to their labor, like wild donkeys in the wilderness,
    looking for food.
The wasteland is their only source of food for themselves
    and their children.
⁶ They gather their straw in the open countryside.
They glean leftovers in the vineyard of the wicked.
⁷ They spend the night naked, without clothing.
They have no covering from the cold.
⁸ They are soaked by heavy rain from the mountains.
They cling to a cliff for shelter.

⁹ The wicked tear away a fatherless child from its mother’s breast.
They take a poor mother’s nursing baby as collateral.

¹⁰ The poor walk around naked, without clothing.
They pick up sheaves but are still hungry.
¹¹ They press olive oil among the terraces of olive trees.
They tread winepresses, but they remain thirsty.
¹² The dying people^[a] of the city groan,
and wounded souls cry out for help,
but God does not bring charges against anyone.