[1] WHY, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days?
[2] Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.
[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 poor of the earth hide themselves together.
[5] Behold, as wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their work; rising betimes for a prey: the wilderness yieldeth food for them and for their children.
[6] They reap every one his corn in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked.
[7] They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they 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] They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor.
[10] They cause him to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaf from the hungry;
[11] Which make oil within their walls, and tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst.
[12] Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them.
[13] They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.
[14] The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief.
[15] The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth his face.
[16] In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light.
[17] For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.
[18] He is swift as the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth: he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards.
[19] Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so doth the grave those which have sinned.
[20] The womb shall forget him; the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a tree.
[21] He evil entreateth the barren that beareth not: and doeth not good to the widow.
[22] He draweth also the mighty with his power: he riseth up, and no man is sure of life.
[23] Though it be given him to be in safety, whereon he resteth; yet his eyes are upon their ways.
[24] They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all other, and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.
[25] And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?