24 ^[a]Why are times not laid up by the Almighty?
And why do not they that know him see his days?
² There are that remove the landmarks;
They violently take away flocks, and feed them.
³ They drive away the ass of the fatherless;
They take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
⁴ They turn the needy out of the way:
The ^[b]poor of the earth all hide themselves.
⁵ Behold, as wild asses in the desert
They go forth to their work, seeking diligently for ^[c]food;
The wilderness yieldeth them bread for their children.
⁶ They cut ^[d]their provender in the field;
And they glean the vintage of the wicked.
⁷ They lie all night naked without clothing,
And have no covering in the cold.
⁸ They are wet with the showers of the mountains,
And embrace the rock for want of a shelter.
⁹ There are that pluck the fatherless from the breast,
And ^[e]take a pledge of the poor;
¹⁰ So that they go about naked without clothing,
And being hungry they carry the sheaves.
¹¹ They make oil within the walls of these men;
They tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst.
¹² From out of the ^[f]populous city men groan,
And the soul of the wounded crieth out:
Yet God regardeth not the folly.

¹³ These are of them that rebel against the light;
They know not the ways thereof,
Nor abide in the paths thereof.
¹⁴ The murderer riseth with the light;
He killeth the poor and needy;
And in the night he is as a thief.
¹⁵ The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight,
Saying, No eye shall see me:
And he ^[g]disguiseth his face.
¹⁶ In the dark they dig through houses:
^[h]They shut themselves up in the day-time;
They know not the light.
¹⁷ For ^[i]the morning is to all of them as thick darkness;
For they know the terrors of the thick darkness.

^18 [j]Swiftly they pass away upon the face of the waters;
Their portion is cursed in the earth:
They turn not into the way of the vineyards.
¹⁹ Drought and heat ^[k]consume the snow waters:
So doth Sheol those that have sinned.
²⁰ The womb shall forget him;
The worm shall feed sweetly on him;
He shall be no more remembered;
And unrighteousness shall be broken ^[l]as a tree.
²¹ He devoureth the barren that beareth not,
And doeth not good to the widow.
²² Yet God preserveth the mighty by his power:
He riseth up that hath no assurance of life.
²³ God giveth them to be in security, and they rest thereon;
^[m]And his eyes are upon their ways.
²⁴ They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone;
^[n]Yea, they are brought low, they are ^[o]taken out of the way as all others,
And are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.
²⁵ And if it be not so now, who will prove me a liar,
And make my speech nothing worth?