24 “Why does the Almighty not set times for judgment?
    Why must those who know him look in vain for such days?
² There are those who move boundary stones;
    they pasture flocks they have stolen.
³ They drive away the orphan’s donkey
    and take the widow’s ox in pledge.
⁴ They thrust the needy from the path
    and force all the poor of the land into hiding.
⁵ Like wild donkeys in the desert,
    the poor go about their labor of foraging food;
    the wasteland provides food for their children.
⁶ They gather fodder in the fields
    and glean in the vineyards of the wicked.
⁷ Lacking clothes, they spend the night naked;
    they have nothing to cover themselves in the cold.
⁸ They are drenched by mountain rains
    and hug the rocks for lack of shelter.
⁹ The fatherless child is snatched from the breast;
    the infant of the poor is seized for a debt.
¹⁰ Lacking clothes, they go about naked;
    they carry the sheaves, but still go hungry.
¹¹ They crush olives among the terraces^[a];
    they tread the winepresses, yet suffer thirst.
¹² The groans of the dying rise from the city,
    and the souls of the wounded cry out for help.
    But God charges no one with wrongdoing.

¹³ “There are those who rebel against the light,
    who do not know its ways
    or stay in its paths.
¹⁴ When daylight is gone, the murderer rises up,
    kills the poor and needy,
    and in the night steals forth like a thief.
¹⁵ The eye of the adulterer watches for dusk;
    he thinks, ‘No eye will see me,’
    and he keeps his face concealed.
¹⁶ In the dark, thieves break into houses,
    but by day they shut themselves in;
    they want nothing to do with the light.
¹⁷ For all of them, midnight is their morning;
    they make friends with the terrors of darkness.

¹⁸ “Yet they are foam on the surface of the water;
    their portion of the land is cursed,
    so that no one goes to the vineyards.
¹⁹ As heat and drought snatch away the melted snow,
    so the grave snatches away those who have sinned.
²⁰ The womb forgets them,
    the worm feasts on them;
the wicked are no longer remembered
    but are broken like a tree.
²¹ They prey on the barren and childless woman,
    and to the widow they show no kindness.
²² But God drags away the mighty by his power;
    though they become established, they have no assurance of life.
²³ He may let them rest in a feeling of security,
    but his eyes are on their ways.
²⁴ For a little while they are exalted, and then they are gone;
    they are brought low and gathered up like all others;
    they are cut off like heads of grain.

²⁵ “If this is not so, who can prove me false
    and reduce my words to nothing?”

² “Dominion and awe belong to God;
    he establishes order in the heights of heaven.
³ Can his forces be numbered?
    On whom does his light not rise?
⁴ How then can a mortal be righteous before God?
    How can one born of woman be pure?
⁵ If even the moon is not bright
    and the stars are not pure in his eyes,
⁶ how much less a mortal, who is but a maggot—
    a human being, who is only a worm!”

² “How you have helped the powerless!
    How you have saved the arm that is feeble!
³ What advice you have offered to one without wisdom!
    And what great insight you have displayed!
⁴ Who has helped you utter these words?
    And whose spirit spoke from your mouth?

⁵ “The dead are in deep anguish,
    those beneath the waters and all that live in them.
⁶ The realm of the dead is naked before God;
    Destruction^[b] lies uncovered.
⁷ He spreads out the northern skies over empty space;
    he suspends the earth over nothing.
⁸ He wraps up the waters in his clouds,
    yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.
⁹ He covers the face of the full moon,
    spreading his clouds over it.
¹⁰ He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters
    for a boundary between light and darkness.
¹¹ The pillars of the heavens quake,
    aghast at his rebuke.
¹² By his power he churned up the sea;
    by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces.
¹³ By his breath the skies became fair;
    his hand pierced the gliding serpent.
¹⁴ And these are but the outer fringe of his works;
    how faint the whisper we hear of him!
    Who then can understand the thunder of his power?”

² “As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice,
    the Almighty, who has made my life bitter,
³ as long as I have life within me,
    the breath of God in my nostrils,
⁴ my lips will not say anything wicked,
    and my tongue will not utter lies.
⁵ I will never admit you are in the right;
    till I die, I will not deny my integrity.
⁶ I will maintain my innocence and never let go of it;
    my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.

⁷ “May my enemy be like the wicked,
    my adversary like the unjust!
⁸ For what hope have the godless when they are cut off,
    when God takes away their life?
⁹ Does God listen to their cry
    when distress comes upon them?
¹⁰ Will they find delight in the Almighty?
    Will they call on God at all times?

¹¹ “I will teach you about the power of God;
    the ways of the Almighty I will not conceal.
¹² You have all seen this yourselves.
    Why then this meaningless talk?

¹³ “Here is the fate God allots to the wicked,
    the heritage a ruthless man receives from the Almighty:
¹⁴ However many his children, their fate is the sword;
    his offspring will never have enough to eat.
¹⁵ The plague will bury those who survive him,
    and their widows will not weep for them.
¹⁶ Though he heaps up silver like dust
    and clothes like piles of clay,
¹⁷ what he lays up the righteous will wear,
    and the innocent will divide his silver.
¹⁸ The house he builds is like a moth’s cocoon,
    like a hut made by a watchman.
¹⁹ He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more;
    when he opens his eyes, all is gone.
²⁰ Terrors overtake him like a flood;
    a tempest snatches him away in the night.
²¹ The east wind carries him off, and he is gone;
    it sweeps him out of his place.
²² It hurls itself against him without mercy
    as he flees headlong from its power.
²³ It claps its hands in derision
    and hisses him out of his place.”

¹² But where can wisdom be found?
    Where does understanding dwell?
¹³ No mortal comprehends its worth;
    it cannot be found in the land of the living.
¹⁴ The deep says, “It is not in me”;
    the sea says, “It is not with me.”
¹⁵ It cannot be bought with the finest gold,
    nor can its price be weighed out in silver.
¹⁶ It cannot be bought with the gold of Ophir,
    with precious onyx or lapis lazuli.
¹⁷ Neither gold nor crystal can compare with it,
    nor can it be had for jewels of gold.
¹⁸ Coral and jasper are not worthy of mention;
    the price of wisdom is beyond rubies.
¹⁹ The topaz of Cush cannot compare with it;
    it cannot be bought with pure gold.

²⁰ Where then does wisdom come from?
    Where does understanding dwell?
²¹ It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing,
    concealed even from the birds in the sky.
²² Destruction^[d] and Death say,
    “Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.”
²³ God understands the way to it
    and he alone knows where it dwells,
²⁴ for he views the ends of the earth
    and sees everything under the heavens.
²⁵ When he established the force of the wind
    and measured out the waters,
²⁶ when he made a decree for the rain
    and a path for the thunderstorm,
²⁷ then he looked at wisdom and appraised it;
    he confirmed it and tested it.
²⁸ And he said to the human race,
    “The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom,
    and to shun evil is understanding.”