[1] Job Continues Why doesn't God set a time for court? Why don't his people know where he can be found? [2] Sinners remove boundary markers and take care of sheep they have stolen. [3] They cheat orphans and widows by taking their donkeys and oxen. [4] The poor are trampled and forced to hide [5] in the desert, where they and their children must live like wild donkeys and search for food. [6] If they want grain or grapes, they must go to the property of these sinners. [7] They sleep naked in the cold, because they have no cover, [8] and during a storm their only shelters are caves among the rocky cliffs. [9] Children whose fathers have died are taken from their mothers as payment for a debt. [10] Then they are forced to work naked in the grain fields because they have no clothes, and they go hungry. [11] They crush olives to make oil and grapes to make wine- but still they go thirsty. [12] And along the city streets, the wounded and dying cry out, yet God does nothing. [13] Some rebel and refuse to follow the light. [14] Soon after sunset they murder the poor and the needy, and at night they steal. [15] Others wait for the dark, thinking they won't be seen if they sleep with the wife or husband of someone else. [16] Robbers hide during the day, then break in after dark because they reject the light. [17] They prefer night to day, since the terrors of the night are their friends. [18] Those sinners are filthy foam on the surface of the water. And so, their fields and vineyards will fall under a curse and won't produce. [19] Just as the heat of summer swallows the snow, the world of the dead swallows those who sin. [20] Forgotten here on earth, and with their power broken, they taste sweet to worms. [21] Sinners take advantage of widows and other helpless women. [22] But God's mighty strength destroys those in power. Even if they seem successful, they are doomed to fail. [23] God may let them feel secure, but they are never out of his sight. [24] Great for a while; gone forever! Sinners are mowed down like weeds, then they wither and die. [25] If I haven't spoken the truth, then prove me wrong.
