1Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days?

2Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed on them.

3They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, they take the widow's ox for a pledge.

4They drive the needy off the road: the poor of the earth hide themselves together.

5Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, go they forth to their work; rising early for a prey: the wilderness yields food for them and for their children.

6They reap every one his grain in the field: and they gather the vineyard of the wicked.

7They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the cold.

8They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter.

9They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge from the poor.

10They cause him to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaves from the hungry;

11Who make oil within their walls, and tread their winepresses, yet suffer thirst.

12Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded cries out: yet God charges not folly to them.

13They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not its ways, nor abide in its paths.

14The murderer rising with the light kills the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief.

15The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguises his face.

16In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light.

17For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one recognizes them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.

18They are swift as the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth: no one turns into the way of the vineyards.

19Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so does the grave those who have sinned.

20The womb shall forget him; the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a tree.

21He evil treats the barren that bears not: and does not good to the widow.

22He draws also the mighty with his power: he rises up, but no man is sure of life.

23Though it be given him to be in safety, he rests; yet his eyes are upon their ways.

24They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all others, and cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.

25And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?