Job: Why are the Wicked Unpunished?
1 “Why are times not appointed by the Almighty?
Why do those who know him not see his days?
2 There are people who remove the landmarks.
They steal flocks and pasture them.
3 They drive away the donkey of the fatherless,
and they take the widow’s ox as a pledge.
4 They thrust the needy out of the way.
The poor of the earth all hide themselves.
5 Like wild donkeys in the desert,
they go out to their work, seeking diligently for food.
The wilderness yields bread for their children.
6 They harvest fields not their own
and glean the vineyard of the wicked.
7 They lie all night naked without clothing
and have no covering in the cold.
8 They are wet with the showers of the mountains
and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter.
9 There are people who snatch the fatherless from the breast,
taking a pledge from the poor.
10 Without clothing, they go around naked.
While they are hungry, they carry the sheaves.
11 They make oil within the walls of these men.
They tread wine presses, while they suffer from thirst.
12 From out of the populous city, men groan.
The soul of the wounded cries out,
yet God does not regard the wrong done to them.
13 These are the ones who rebel against the light.
They do not know its ways,
nor stay in its paths.
14 The murderer rises with the light.
He kills the poor and needy.
In the night he is like a thief.
15 The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight,
saying, ‘No eye will see me.’
He disguises his face.
16 In the dark they dig through houses.
They shut themselves up in the daytime.
They do not know the light.
17 For the morning is to all of them like thick darkness,
for they know the terrors of the thick darkness.
18 They are foam on the surface of the waters.
Their portion is cursed on the earth.
They do not turn into the way of the vineyards.
19 As drought and heat consume the melted snow,
so Sheol takes away those who have sinned.
20 The womb will forget him.
The worm will feed sweetly on him.
He will be remembered no more.
Unrighteousness will be broken like a tree.
21 He devours the barren who does not bear.
He shows no kindness to the widow.
22 Yet God pulls the mighty down by his power.
Though he rises, he has no assurance of life.
23 God gives them security, and they rest in it,
yet his eyes are on their ways.
24 They are exalted, yet a little while, and they are gone.
Yes, they are brought low.
They are taken out of the way like all the others
and are cut off like the tops of the ears of grain.
25 If it is not so now, who will prove me a liar
and make my speech worth nothing?”