Study Desk

"Why does the Almighty not set times^(a) for judgment?^(b) Why must those who know him look in vain for such days?^(c)

There are those who move boundary stones;^(d) they pasture flocks they have stolen.^(e)

They drive away the orphan's donkey and take the widow's ox in pledge.^(f)

They thrust the needy^(g) from the path and force all the poor^(h) of the land into hiding.⁽ⁱ⁾

Like wild donkeys^(j) in the desert, the poor go about their labor^(k) of foraging food; the wasteland^(l) provides food for their children.

They gather fodder^(m) in the fields and glean in the vineyards⁽ⁿ⁾ of the wicked.^(o)

Lacking clothes, they spend the night naked; they have nothing to cover themselves in the cold.^(p)

They are drenched^(q) by mountain rains and hug^(r) the rocks for lack of shelter.^(s)

The fatherless^(t) child is snatched^(u) from the breast; the infant of the poor is seized^(v) for a debt.^(w)

Lacking clothes, they go about naked;^(x) they carry the sheaves,^(y) but still go hungry.

They crush olives among the terraces^[a]; they tread the winepresses,^(z) yet suffer thirst.^(aa)

The groans of the dying rise from the city, and the souls of the wounded cry out for help.^(ab) But God charges no one with wrongdoing.^(ac)

"There are those who rebel against the light,^(ad) who do not know its ways or stay in its paths.^(ae)

When daylight is gone, the murderer rises up, kills^(af) the poor and needy,^(ag) and in the night steals forth like a thief.^(ah)

The eye of the adulterer^(ai) watches for dusk;^(aj) he thinks, ‘No eye will see me,'^(ak) and he keeps his face concealed.

In the dark, thieves break into houses,^(al) but by day they shut themselves in; they want nothing to do with the light.^(am)

For all of them, midnight is their morning; they make friends with the terrors^(an) of darkness.^(ao)

"Yet they are foam^(ap) on the surface of the water;^(aq) their portion of the land is cursed,^(ar) so that no one goes to the vineyards.^(as)

As heat and drought snatch away the melted snow,^(at) so the grave^(au) snatches away those who have sinned.

The womb forgets them, the worm^(av) feasts on them;^(aw) the wicked are no longer remembered^(ax) but are broken like a tree.^(ay)

They prey on the barren and childless woman, and to the widow they show no kindness.^(az)

But God drags away the mighty by his power;^(ba) though they become established,^(bb) they have no assurance of life.^(bc)

He may let them rest in a feeling of security,^(bd) but his eyes^(be) are on their ways.^(bf)

For a little while they are exalted, and then they are gone;^(bg) they are brought low and gathered up like all others;^(bh) they are cut off like heads of grain.^(bi)

"If this is not so, who can prove me false and reduce my words to nothing?"^(bj)