Job 24 YLT
Summary: Job shifts to describing broader social injustice in the world, asking why the Almighty does not set fixed times of judgment, since the wicked move boundary stones, steal livestock, and drive away the fatherless and the widow's ox, forcing the poor into hiding and gleaning in others' fields. He describes the desperate poor going about naked and hungry, carrying sheaves for others while starving themselves, and the oppressed groaning in the city, yet notes that God seemingly "layeth not folly to them" (v. 12), allowing murderers, adulterers, and thieves to operate under cover of darkness with apparent impunity. Job's point throughout is that the tidy moral order his friends insist on does not match the disordered reality of injustice he observes.
1Wherefore from the Mighty One Times have not been hidden, And those knowing Him have not seen His days.
2The borders they reach, A drove they have taken violently away, Yea, they do evil.
3The ass of the fatherless they lead away, They take in pledge the ox of the widow,
4They turn aside the needy from the way, Together have hid the poor of the earth.
5Lo, wild asses in a wilderness, They have gone out about their work, Seeking early for prey, A mixture for himself--food for young ones.
6In a field his provender they reap, And the vineyard of the wicked they glean.
7The naked they cause to lodge Without clothing. And there is no covering in the cold.
8From the inundation of hills they are wet, And without a refuge--have embraced a rock.
9They take violently away From the breast the orphan, And on the poor they lay a pledge.
10Naked, they have gone without clothing, And hungry--have taken away a sheaf.
11Between their walls they make oil, Wine-presses they have trodden, and thirst.
12Because of enmity men do groan, And the soul of pierced ones doth cry, And God doth not give praise.
13They have been among rebellious ones of light, They have not discerned His ways, Nor abode in His paths.
14At the light doth the murderer rise, He doth slay the poor and needy, And in the night he is as a thief.
15And the eye of an adulterer Hath observed the twilight, Saying, `No eye doth behold me.' And he putteth the face in secret.
16He hath dug in the darkness--houses; By day they shut themselves up, They have not known light.
17When together, morning is to them death shade, When he discerneth the terrors of death shade.
18Light he is on the face of the waters, Vilified is their portion in the earth, He turneth not the way of vineyards.
19Drought--also heat--consume snow-waters, Sheol those who have sinned.
20Forget him doth the womb, Sweeten on him doth the worm, No more is he remembered, And broken as a tree is wickedness.
21Treating evil the barren who beareth not, And to the widow he doth no good,
22And hath drawn the mighty by his power, He riseth, and none believeth in life.
23He giveth to him confidence, and he is supported, And his eyes are on their ways.
24High they were for a little, and they are not, And they have been brought low. As all others they are shut up, And as the head of an ear of corn cut off.
25And if not now, who doth prove me a liar, And doth make of nothing my word?
Also read this chapter in: KJV, WEB, ASV, WYC, GNV, WBT, DBY