| 章 |
| 24:1 |
"Why does the Almighty not set times for judgment? Why must those who know him look in vain for such days?
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| 24:2 |
Men move boundary stones; they pasture flocks they have stolen.
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| 24:3 |
They drive away the orphan's donkey and take the widow's ox in pledge.
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| 24:4 |
They thrust the needy from the path and force all the poor of the land into hiding.
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| 24:5 |
Like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go about their labor of foraging food; the wasteland provides food for their children.
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| 24:6 |
They gather fodder in the fields and glean in the vineyards of the wicked.
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| 24:7 |
Lacking clothes, they spend the night naked; they have nothing to cover themselves in the cold.
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| 24:8 |
They are drenched by mountain rains and hug the rocks for lack of shelter.
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| 24:9 |
The fatherless child is snatched from the breast; the infant of the poor is seized for a debt.
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| 24:10 |
Lacking clothes, they go about naked; they carry the sheaves, but still go hungry.
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| 24:11 |
They crush olives among the terraces; they tread the winepresses, yet suffer thirst.
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| 24:12 |
The groans of the dying rise from the city, and the souls of the wounded cry out for help. But God charges no one with wrongdoing.
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| 24:13 |
"There are those who rebel against the light, who do not know its ways or stay in its paths.
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| 24:14 |
When daylight is gone, the murderer rises up and kills the poor and needy; in the night he steals forth like a thief.
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| 24:15 |
The eye of the adulterer watches for dusk; he thinks, `No eye will see me, 'and he keeps his face concealed.
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| 24:16 |
In the dark, men break into houses, but by day they shut themselves in; they want nothing to do with the light.
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| 24:17 |
For all of them, deep darkness is their morning; they make friends with the terrors of darkness.
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| 24:18 |
"Yet they are foam on the surface of the water; their portion of the land is cursed, so that no one goes to the vineyards.
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| 24:19 |
As heat and drought snatch away the melted snow, so the grave snatches away those who have sinned.
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| 24:20 |
The womb forgets them, the worm feasts on them; evil men are no longer remembered but are broken like a tree.
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| 24:21 |
They prey on the barren and childless woman, and to the widow show no kindness.
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| 24:22 |
But God drags away the mighty by his power; though they become established, they have no assurance of life.
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| 24:23 |
He may let them rest in a feeling of security, but his eyes are on their ways.
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| 24:24 |
For a little while they are exalted, and then they are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like all others; they are cut off like heads of grain.
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| 24:25 |
"If this is not so, who can prove me false and reduce my words to nothing?"
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