1Why, since times are not hidden from the Almighty, do those who know him not see his days?
2Some move the boundary stones. They seize flocks by force and feed them.
3They drive away the donkey of the fatherless. They take the widow's ox as a pledge.
4They push the needy off the road. The poor of the earth all hide themselves.
5Look, like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go out to their work, searching early for food. The wilderness gives them bread for their children.
6They harvest grain in a field that is not theirs. They glean the vineyard of the wicked.
7They make the naked lie down without clothing, with nothing to cover them in the cold.
8They are soaked by the rain showers of the mountains, and they hug the rock because they have no shelter.
9They tear the fatherless child from the breast. They take a pledge from the poor.
10They make him go naked, without clothing. They carry off the sheaf from the hungry.
11These poor press out oil inside their masters' walls. They tread the winepresses, yet they go thirsty.
12Men groan from inside the city, and the soul of the wounded cries out. Yet God does not charge them with wrong.
13They are among those who rebel against the light. They do not know its ways, and they do not stay in its paths.
14The murderer gets up when it is light and kills the poor and needy. In the night he is like a thief.
15The eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight. He says, "No eye shall see me," and he covers his face.
16In the dark they break into houses, which they marked out for themselves in the daytime. They do not know the light.
17For to them the morning is like the shadow of death. If someone knows them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.
18He is swift as the waters. Their share of the land is cursed. He does not turn toward the way of the vineyards.
19Drought and heat swallow up the snow waters; so does the grave swallow those who have sinned.
20The womb shall forget him. The worm shall feed sweetly on him. He shall be remembered no more, and wickedness shall be broken like a tree.
21He treats badly the barren woman who bears no child, and he does no good to the widow.
22He drags away the mighty by his power. He rises up, and no one is sure of his life.
23Though he is given safety, and he rests on it, yet God's eyes are on their ways.
24They are lifted up for a little while, then they are gone and brought low. They are taken away like all others, and cut off like the tops of the ears of grain.
25If this is not so, who will prove me a liar, and show my words are worth nothing?