Why the Almighty Sets No Times
Job asks why the Almighty keeps no calendar of judgment. He lists what goes unanswered: boundary stones moved, a widow's ox seized, the poor sleeping naked in mountain rain, murderers and thieves at work by dark, while the dying groan and God charges no one.
24 1"Why doesn't the Almighty set aside times for judgment? Why do those who know him never see his days? 2The wicked move boundary stones; they seize flocks and pasture them as their own. 3They drive away the donkey of the fatherless; they take the widow's ox as collateral. 4They shove the needy off the road, so that the poor of the land are forced into hiding. 5Look—like wild donkeys in the wilderness, the poor go out to their labor, scavenging for food; the wasteland yields bread for their children. 6They harvest fodder in fields not their own and glean the vineyard of the wicked. 7They spend the night naked, without clothing, with no covering against the cold. 8They are drenched by the mountain rains and huddle against the rock for lack of shelter. 9The fatherless child is snatched from the breast, and the infant of the poor is seized as collateral. 10They go about naked, without clothing; starving, they carry the sheaves. 11Among the olive groves they press out oil; they work the winepresses, yet they go thirsty. 12From the city the dying groan, and the throats of the wounded cry out for help—yet God does not charge anyone with the wrongdoing.
13"There are those who rebel against the light; they do not know its ways or remain in its paths. 14At dawn the murderer rises to kill the poor and needy, and by night he prowls like a thief. 15The eye of the adulterer watches for twilight, thinking, 'No eye will see me,' and he keeps his face hidden. 16In the dark they break into houses; by day they shut themselves away, for they want nothing to do with the light. 17For deep darkness is morning to them all; they are at home with the terrors of the dark.
18"Yet you say they are swift on the face of the waters; their portion of the land is cursed, and no one turns toward their vineyards. 19As drought and heat steal away the melting snow, so the grave snatches those who have sinned. 20The womb that bore them forgets them; the worm feasts on them; they are remembered no more, and wickedness is shattered like a tree. 21They prey on the barren woman who bears no child and show no kindness to the widow.
22"Yet by his power God drags off the mighty; he rises up, and no one is sure of his own life. 23God lets them rest in security, and they lean on it, but his eyes are on their ways. 24They are exalted for a little while, and then they are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like everyone else, cut off like heads of grain. 25If this is not so, who can prove me a liar and reduce my words to nothing?"
