Study Desk

If you want to make yourselves look better than I, you can blame me for my suffering.

"I shout, ‘I have been wronged!' But I get no answer. I scream for help but I get no justice.

I call for my servant, but he does not answer, even when I beg him with my own mouth.

"You know how it has been for a long time, ever since people were first put on the earth.

They must give back what they worked for without eating it; they will not enjoy the money they made from their trading,

But nothing will be left for them to eat; their riches will not continue.

total darkness waits for their treasure. A fire not fanned by people will destroy them and burn up what is left of their tents.

This is what God plans for evil people; this is what he has decided they will receive."

It is said, ‘God saves up a person's punishment for his children.' But God should punish the wicked themselves so they will know it.

Who will accuse them to their faces? Who will pay them back for the evil they have done?

Does it help the Almighty for you to be good? Does he gain anything if you are innocent?

Does God punish you for respecting him? Does he bring you into court for this?

You took your brothers' things for a debt they didn't owe; you took clothes from people and left them naked.

Then the Almighty will be your gold and the best silver for you.

"I wish the Almighty would set a time for judging. Those who know God do not see such a day.

The poor become like wild donkeys in the desert who go about their job of finding food. The desert gives them food for their children.

The fatherless child is grabbed from its mother's breast; they take a poor mother's baby to pay for what she owes.

Dying people groan in the city, and the injured cry out for help, but God accuses no one of doing wrong.

Those who are guilty of adultery watch for the night, thinking, ‘No one will see us,' and they keep their faces covered.

For a little while they are important, and then they die; they are laid low and buried like everyone else; they are cut off like the heads of grain.