The Apparent Indifference of God

24:1 Why are times not appointed by¹ the Almighty?²
Why do those who know him not see his days?
24:2 Men³ move boundary stones;
they seize the flock and pasture them.⁴
24:3 They drive away the orphans’ donkey;
they take the widow’s ox in pledge.
24:4 They turn the needy from the way,
and the poor of the land hide themselves together.⁵
24:5 Like⁶ wild donkeys in the desert
they⁷ go forth in their labor,⁸
seeking diligently for food;
the wasteland provides⁹ food for them
and for their children.
24:6 They reap fodder¹⁰ in the field,
and glean¹¹ in the vineyard of the wicked.
24:7 They spend the night naked because they lack clothing;
they have no covering in the cold.
24:8 They are drenched by mountain rains
and huddle¹² in the rocks because they lack shelter.
24:9 The fatherless child is snatched¹³ from the breast,¹⁴
the infant of the poor is taken in pledge.¹⁵
24:10 They go about naked, without clothes,
and hungry they carry the sheaves.¹⁶
24:11 They press out the oil among the olive rows,¹⁷
they tread the winepresses while they are thirsty.¹⁸
24:12 From the city the dying¹⁹ groan,
and the souls of the wounded cry out for help,
but God charges no one with wrong doing.²⁰
24:13 There are those²¹ who rebel against the light;
they do not know its ways
and they do not stay on its paths.
24:14 Before daybreak²² the murderer rises up,
he kills the poor and the needy;
in the night he is²³ like a thief.²⁴
24:15 And the eye of the adulterer watches for the twilight;
thinking,²⁵ “No eye can see me”;
and with a veil he covers his face.
24:16 In the dark the robber²⁶ breaks into the houses,²⁷
but by day they shut themselves in;²⁸
they do not know the light.²⁹
24:17 For all of them,³⁰ the morning is to them
like deep darkness,
they make friends with the terrors of darkness.
24:18³¹ You say,³² “He is light upon the face of the waters;³³
their portion of the land is cursed
so that no one goes to the vineyard.³⁴
24:19 The drought as well as the heat carry away
the melted snow,³⁵
so the grave takes away those who have sinned.³⁶
24:20 The womb forgets him, the worm feasts on him,
no longer will he be remembered;
like the tree, wickedness will be broken down.
24:21 He preys on³⁷ the barren and childless woman,³⁸
and he does not treat the widow well.
24:22 But God³⁹ drags off the mighty by his power;
when he rises up, he has no faith in his life.⁴⁰
24:23 He may let them rest in a feeling of security,⁴¹
but his eyes are on all their ways.⁴²
24:24 They are exalted for a little while,
and then they are gone,⁴³
they are brought low⁴⁴ like all others,
and gathered in,⁴⁵
and like a head of grain they are cut off.”⁴⁶
24:25 If this is not so, who can prove me false
and reduce my words to nothing?⁴⁷