Job Complains of Violence on the Earth

² “Some remove landmarks;
They seize flocks violently and feed on them;

³ They drive away the donkey of the fatherless;
They take the widow’s ox as a pledge.

⁴ They push the needy off the road;
All the poor of the land are forced to hide.

⁵ Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert,
They go out to their work, searching for food.
The wilderness yields food for them and for their children.

⁶ They gather their fodder in the field
And glean in the vineyard of the wicked.

⁷ They spend the night naked, without clothing,
And have no covering in the cold.

⁸ They are wet with the showers of the mountains,
And huddle around the rock for want of shelter.

⁹ “Some snatch the fatherless from the breast,
And take a pledge from the poor.

¹⁰ They cause the poor to go naked, without clothing;
And they take away the sheaves from the hungry.

¹¹ They press out oil within their walls,
And tread winepresses, yet suffer thirst.

¹² The dying groan in the city,
And the souls of the wounded cry out;
Yet God does not charge them with wrong.

¹³ “There are those who rebel against the light;
They do not know its ways
Nor abide in its paths.

¹⁴ The murderer rises with the light;
He kills the poor and needy;
And in the night he is like a thief.

¹⁵ The eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight,
Saying, ‘No eye will see me’;
And he disguises his face.

¹⁶ In the dark they break into houses
Which they marked for themselves in the daytime;
They do not know the light.

¹⁷ For the morning is the same to them as the shadow of death;
If someone recognizes them,
They are in the terrors of the shadow of death.

¹⁸ “They should be swift on the face of the waters,
Their portion should be cursed in the earth,
So that no one would turn into the way of their vineyards.

¹⁹ As drought and heat consume the snow waters,
So the grave^[a]consumes those who have sinned.

²⁰ The womb should forget him,
The worm should feed sweetly on him;
He should be remembered no more,
And wickedness should be broken like a tree.

²¹ For he preys on the barren who do not bear,
And does no good for the widow.

²² “But God draws the mighty away with His power;
He rises up, but no man is sure of life.

²³ He gives them security, and they rely on it;
Yet His eyes are on their ways.

²⁴ They are exalted for a little while,
Then they are gone.
They are brought low;
They are taken out of the way like all others;
They dry out like the heads of grain.

²⁵ “Now if it is not so, who will prove me a liar,
And make my speech worth nothing?”