Berean Study Bible | New Living Translation |
1“Why does the Almighty not reserve times for judgment? Why may those who know Him never see His days? | 1“Why doesn’t the Almighty bring the wicked to judgment? Why must the godly wait for him in vain? |
2Men move boundary stones; they pasture stolen flocks. | 2Evil people steal land by moving the boundary markers. They steal livestock and put them in their own pastures. |
3They drive away the donkey of the fatherless and take the widow’s ox in pledge. | 3They take the orphan’s donkey and demand the widow’s ox as security for a loan. |
4They push the needy off the road and force all the poor of the land into hiding. | 4The poor are pushed off the path; the needy must hide together for safety. |
5Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go to work foraging for food; the wasteland is food for their children. | 5Like wild donkeys in the wilderness, the poor must spend all their time looking for food, searching even in the desert for food for their children. |
6They gather fodder in the fields and glean the vineyards of the wicked. | 6They harvest a field they do not own, and they glean in the vineyards of the wicked. |
7Without clothing, they spend the night naked; they have no covering against the cold. | 7All night they lie naked in the cold, without clothing or covering. |
8Drenched by mountain rains, they huddle against the rocks for want of shelter. | 8They are soaked by mountain showers, and they huddle against the rocks for want of a home. |
9The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast; the nursing child of the poor is seized for a debt. | 9“The wicked snatch a widow’s child from her breast, taking the baby as security for a loan. |
10Without clothing, they wander about naked. They carry the sheaves, but still go hungry. | 10The poor must go about naked, without any clothing. They harvest food for others while they themselves are starving. |
11They crush olives within their walls; they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty. | 11They press out olive oil without being allowed to taste it, and they tread in the winepress as they suffer from thirst. |
12From the city, men groan, and the souls of the wounded cry out, yet God charges no one with wrongdoing. | 12The groans of the dying rise from the city, and the wounded cry for help, yet God ignores their moaning. |
13Then there are those who rebel against the light, not knowing its ways or staying on its paths. | 13“Wicked people rebel against the light. They refuse to acknowledge its ways or stay in its paths. |
14When daylight is gone, the murderer rises to kill the poor and needy; in the night he is like a thief. | 14The murderer rises in the early dawn to kill the poor and needy; at night he is a thief. |
15The eye of the adulterer watches for twilight. Thinking, ‘No eye will see me,’ he covers his face. | 15The adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No one will see me then.’ He hides his face so no one will know him. |
16In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves in, never to experience the light. | 16Thieves break into houses at night and sleep in the daytime. They are not acquainted with the light. |
17For to them, deep darkness is their morning; surely they are friends with the terrors of darkness! | 17The black night is their morning. They ally themselves with the terrors of the darkness. |
18They are but foam on the surface of the water; their portion of the land is cursed, so that no one turns toward their vineyards. | 18“But they disappear like foam down a river. Everything they own is cursed, and they are afraid to enter their own vineyards. |
19As drought and heat consume the melting snow, so Sheol steals those who have sinned. | 19The grave consumes sinners just as drought and heat consume snow. |
20The womb forgets them; the worm feeds on them; they are remembered no more. So injustice is like a broken tree. | 20Their own mothers will forget them. Maggots will find them sweet to eat. No one will remember them. Wicked people are broken like a tree in the storm. |
21They prey on the barren and childless, and show no kindness to the widow. | 21They cheat the woman who has no son to help her. They refuse to help the needy widow. |
22Yet by His power, God drags away the mighty; though rising up, they have no assurance of life. | 22“God, in his power, drags away the rich. They may rise high, but they have no assurance of life. |
23He gives them a sense of security, but His eyes are on their ways. | 23They may be allowed to live in security, but God is always watching them. |
24They are exalted for a moment, then they are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like all others; they are cut off like heads of grain. | 24And though they are great now, in a moment they will be gone like all others, cut off like heads of grain. |
25If this is not so, then who can prove me a liar and reduce my words to nothing?” | 25Can anyone claim otherwise? Who can prove me wrong?” |
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