Job 24

¹Times are not hid from the Omnipotent: but they that know him, know not his days.

²Some have transferred bounds, spoiled flocks, & fed them.

³They have driven away the ass of pupils, and have taken away the widow's oxe for a pledge.

⁴They have subverted the way of the poor, and have oppressed together the meek of the earth.

⁵Others as wild asses in the desert go forth to their work: watching to the prey, do prepare bread for their children.

⁶They reap the field that is not theirs, and gather the grapes of his vineyard, whom by violence they have oppressed.

⁷They send men away naked taking away their cloths, which have no covering in the cold.

⁸Whom the showers of the mountains do wash, & not having a covert, they embrace stones.

⁹They did violence spoiling the pupils, & the common poor people they spoiled.

¹⁰From the naked & them that go without clothing, and the hungry they have taken away the ears of corn.

¹¹They have rested the noontide among their heaps, which having trodden the wine presses are a thirst.

¹²Out of the cities they have made men to mourn, and the soul of the wounded hath cried, & God doth not suffer it to pass unrevenged:

¹³They have been rebellious to the light, they have not known his ways, neither did they return by his paths.

¹⁴At the very break of day the murderer riseth, he killeth the needy, and the poor man: but by night he will be as a thief.

¹⁵The eye of the adulterer observeth darkness, saying: Eye shall not see me: and he will cover his face.

¹⁶He diggeth through houses in the dark, as in the day they had appointed with themselves, and they have not known the light.

¹⁷If suddenly the morning shall appear, they think it the shadow of death: and they walk so in darkness as it were in light.

¹⁸He is light above the face of the water: cursed be his portion in the earth, neither walk he by the way of the vineyards.

¹⁹Let him pass from snow waters to exceeding heat, and his sin even unto hell.

²⁰Let mercy forget him: worms his sweetness: be he not in remembrance, but be he broken in pieces as an unfruitful tree.

²¹For he hath fed the barren, and her that beareth not, and to the widow he hath not done good.

²²He hath pulled down the strong in his strength and when he shall stand, he will not credit his life.

²³God hath given him place for penance, and he abuseth it unto pride: but his eyes be upon his ways.

²⁴They are elevated for a little, and shall not stand, and shall be humbled as all things, and shall be taken away, and as the tops of the ears of corn they shall be broken.

²⁵And if it be not so, who can reprove me that I have lied, and set my words before God?