1Why are times not laid up by the Almighty? And why do those who know him not see his days?
2There are those who remove the landmarks; They violently take away flocks, and feed them.
3They drive away the donkey of the fatherless; They take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
4They turn the needy out of the way: The poor of the earth all hide themselves.
5Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert They go out to their work, seeking diligently for food; The wilderness yields them bread for their children.
6They cut their fodder in the field; And they glean the vintage of the wicked.
7They lie all night naked without clothing, And have no covering in the cold.
8They are wet with the showers of the mountains, And embrace the rock for lack of a shelter.
9There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, And take a pledge from the poor;
10So that they go about naked without clothing, And being hungry they carry the sheaves.
11They make oil within the walls of these men; They tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst.
12From out of the populous city men groan, And the soul of the wounded cries out: Yet God does not regard the folly.
13These are of those who rebel against the light; They do not know its ways, Nor abide in its paths.
14The murderer rises with the light; He kills the poor and needy; And in the night he is as a thief.
15The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, Saying, No eye shall see me: And he disguises his face.
16In the dark they dig through houses: They shut themselves up in the daytime; They do not know the light.
17For the morning is to all of them as thick darkness; For they know the terrors of the thick darkness.
18Swiftly they pass away on the face of the waters; Their portion is cursed in the earth: They do not turn into the way of the vineyards.
19Drought and heat consume the snow waters: So does Sheol those who have sinned.
20The womb shall forget him; The worm shall feed sweetly on him; He shall be no more remembered; And unrighteousness shall be broken as a tree.
21He devours the barren who does not bear, And does no good to the widow.
22Yet God preserves the mighty by his power: He rises up who has no assurance of life.
23God gives them to be in security, and they rest on it; And his eyes are on their ways.
24They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone; Indeed, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others, And are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.
25And if it is not so now, who will prove me a liar, And make my speech worth nothing?