Job 24
24
Job Continues
Why Doesn't God Set a Time?
1Why doesn't God
set a time for court?
Why don't his people know
where he can be found?
2Sinners remove boundary markers
and take care of sheep
they have stolen.
3They cheat orphans and widows
by taking their donkeys
and oxen.
4The poor are trampled
and forced to hide
5in the desert,
where they and their children
must live like wild donkeys
and search for food.
6If they want grain or grapes,#24.6 If they want grain or grapes: Poor people were allowed to gather what was left in the fields and vineyards after the harvest.
they must go to the property
of these sinners.
7They sleep naked in the cold,
because they have no cover,
8and during a storm
their only shelters are caves
among the rocky cliffs.
9Children whose fathers have died
are taken from their mothers
as payment for a debt.
10Then they are forced to work
naked in the grain fields
because they have no clothes,
and they go hungry.
11They crush olives to make oil
and grapes to make wine—
but still they go thirsty.
12And along the city streets,
the wounded and dying cry out,
yet God does nothing.
Some Reject the Light
13Some rebel and refuse
to follow the light.
14Soon after sunset they murder
the poor and the needy,
and at night they steal.
15Others wait for the dark,
thinking they won't be seen
if they sleep with the wife
or husband of someone else.
16Robbers hide during the day,
then break in after dark
because they reject the light.
17They prefer night to day,
since the terrors of the night
are their friends.
Sinners Are Filthy Foam
18Those sinners are filthy foam
on the surface of the water.
And so, their fields and vineyards
will fall under a curse
and won't produce.
19Just as the heat of summer
swallows the snow,
the world of the dead
swallows those who sin.
20Forgotten here on earth,
and with their power broken,
they taste sweet to worms.
21Sinners take advantage of widows
and other helpless women.#24.21 women: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 21.
22But God's mighty strength
destroys those in power.
Even if they seem successful,
they are doomed to fail.
23God may let them feel secure,
but they are never
out of his sight.
24Great for a while; gone forever!
Sinners are mowed down
like weeds,
then they wither and die.
25If I haven't spoken the truth,
then prove me wrong.
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Job 24: CEV
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
