Study Desk

"Why does the Almighty not set times for judgment? Why must those who know him look in vain for such days?

Men move boundary stones; they pasture flocks they have stolen.

They drive away the orphan's donkey and take the widow's ox in pledge.

They thrust the needy from the path and force all the poor of the land into hiding.

Like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go about their labor of foraging food; the wasteland provides food for their children.

They gather fodder in the fields and glean in the vineyards of the wicked.

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

They are drenched by mountain rains and hug the rocks for lack of shelter.

The fatherless child is snatched from the breast; the infant of the poor is seized for a debt.

Lacking clothes, they go about naked; they carry the sheaves, but still go hungry.

They crush olives among the terraces ^(F51) ; they tread the winepresses, yet suffer thirst.

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.