Job 24:1-12

The Voice

24 Job: Why are there not judgment times for the wicked before the Highest One?^[a]
        Why do those who know Him not see His judgment days?
²     After all it’s the wicked who seize land that belongs to others,
        capture flocks and let them graze for themselves,
³     Drive off orphans’ donkeys,
        take as collateral widows’ oxen,
⁴     Drive the needy off the road,
        and force the poor into hiding together.
⁵     Look at how the poor are forced to live!
        Like wild donkeys in the desert,
    They spend all their energy scrounging for food,
        hoping the desert provides enough to feed their children!
⁶     They forage for scraps out in the open
        and glean what they can from the already-harvested vineyards of the wicked.
⁷     They settle down night after night, naked since pawning their cloaks,
        and have nothing to protect them from the cold.
⁸     The hard mountain rains soak them
        as they press themselves against rocks in the absence of real shelter;
⁹     The fatherless child is torn away from the breast;
        the suckling babe is seized as collateral from the poor.
¹⁰     They force the poor to wander naked, no clothing to be had,
        carrying the very bundles of grain they long to eat.
¹¹     They are stationed among the terraces^[b]
        pressing oil from the olive that calls to their hunger;
        they trample in winepresses, extracting the juice for which they thirst.
¹²     At the outskirts of the city, the oppressed groan,
        wounded souls crying for help,
        but God fails to charge the guilty who have brought them such pain.