Job 24

Good News Translation

² People move property lines to get more land;
    they steal sheep and put them with their own flocks.
³ They take donkeys that belong to orphans,
    and keep a widow's ox till she pays her debts.
⁴ They prevent the poor from getting their rights
    and force the needy to run and hide.

⁵ So the poor, like wild donkeys,
    search for food in the dry wilderness;
    nowhere else can they find food for their children.
⁶ They have to harvest fields they don't own,^[a]
    and gather grapes in vineyards of the wicked.
⁷ At night they sleep with nothing to cover them,
    nothing to keep them from the cold.
⁸ They are drenched by the rain that falls on the mountains,
    and they huddle beside the rocks for shelter.

⁹ Evil people make slaves of fatherless infants
    and take the children of the poor in payment for debts.
¹⁰ But the poor must go out with no clothes to protect them;
    they must go hungry while harvesting wheat.
¹¹ They press olives for oil, and grapes for wine,
    but they themselves are thirsty.
¹² In the cities the wounded and dying cry out,
    but God ignores their prayers.

¹³ There are those who reject the light;
    they don't understand it or go where it leads.
¹⁴ At dawn the murderer gets up
    and goes out to kill the poor,
    and at night he steals.
¹⁵ The adulterer waits for twilight to come;
    he covers his face so that no one can see him.
¹⁶ At night thieves break into houses,
    but by day they hide and avoid the light.
¹⁷ They fear the light of day,
    but darkness holds no terror for them.