Job’s Eighth Speech, Continued

1 “Why are not times kept by Shaddai,

and why do not those who know him see his days?

2 Theyremove border stones;

they seize flocks, and they pasture them.

3 They drive away the donkey of orphans;

they take the widow’s ox as a pledge.

4 They thrust the poor off the road;

the needy of the earth hide themselves together.

5 “Look, like wild donkeys in the desert

theygo out to their labor as searchers for the prey;

the wilderness istheirfood for the young.

6 They reap theirfodder in the field,

and they glean in the vineyard of the wicked.

7 They spend the night naked, withoutclothing,

and they have no garment in the cold.

8 They are wet from the rainstorm of the mountains,

and they cling to the rock withoutrefuge.

9 “Theysnatch the orphan from the breast,

and they take a pledge against the needy.

10 Theygo about naked, without clothing,

and hungry, they carry the sheaves.

11 Between their terraces they press out oil;

they tread the presses, butthey are thirsty.

12 From the city people groan,

and the throatof the wounded cries for help;

yetGod does not regard it as unseemly.

13 “Those are among the ones rebelling against the light;

they do not recognize his ways,

and they do not stay in his paths.

14 At duskthe murderer rises;

he kills the needy and the poor,

and in the night he is like athief.

15 And the eye of the adulterer waits for dusk,

saying, ‘No eye will see me,’

and he places a covering on his face.

16 He digs through houses in the darkness;

by day they shut themselves in—

they do not know the light

17 because morning likewise is to them deep darkness;

indeed, they know about the terrors of deep darkness.

18 “He himselfis swift on the water’s surface;

their portion is cursed in the land.

No one turns toward the path of their vineyards.

19 Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters,

like Sheol snatches away thosewho have sinned.

20 The womb forgets him.

The maggot feasts on him until he is no longer remembered,

and wickedness is broken like atree.

21 He feeds on the barren, who does not have a child,

and does no good to the widow.

22 Yethecarries off the tyrants by his strength;

if he rises up, thenhecannot be certain of life.

23 Hegives security to him, and he issupported,

buthis eyes are upon their ways.

24 They are exalted a little while, thenthey are gone.

And they are brought low; they are cut off like all others,

and like the heads of grain they wither away.

25 “And if it is not so, then who can prove me a liar

and reduce my word to nothing?”