Job 24

Berean Standard Bible

Chapter summary

Job questions why times for judgment are not set by the Almighty, observing that wrongdoers move boundary stones, steal flocks, and oppress the vulnerable. The poor and needy are forced into hiding, going naked without clothing or shelter, and gathering food and harvesting crops while remaining hungry and thirsty. Meanwhile, murderers, thieves, and adulterers operate in the darkness of night, avoiding the light. Ultimately, Job states that sinners are consumed by death like drought consumes snow, and that God watches the ways of the mighty before bringing them low.

Summary automatically generated from the Bible text.

Words of Jesus in red

¹“Why does the Almighty not reserve times for judgment? Why may those who know Him never see His days? ²Men move boundary stones; they pasture stolen flocks. ³They drive away the donkey of the fatherless and take the widow’s ox in pledge. ⁴They push the needy off the road and force all the poor of the land into hiding. ⁵Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go to work foraging for food; the wasteland is food for their children. ⁶They gather fodder in the fields and glean the vineyards of the wicked. ⁷Without clothing, they spend the night naked; they have no covering against the cold. ⁸Drenched by mountain rains, they huddle against the rocks for want of shelter. ⁹The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast; the nursing child of the poor is seized for a debt. ¹⁰Without clothing, they wander about naked. They carry the sheaves, but still go hungry. ¹¹They crush olives within their walls; they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty. ¹²From the city, men groan, and the souls of the wounded cry out, yet God charges no one with wrongdoing. ¹³Then there are those who rebel against the light, not knowing its ways or staying on its paths. ¹⁴When daylight is gone, the murderer rises to kill the poor and needy; in the night he is like a thief. ¹⁵The eye of the adulterer watches for twilight. Thinking, ‘No eye will see me,’ he covers his face. ¹⁶In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves in, never to experience the light. ¹⁷For to them, deep darkness is their morning; surely they are friends with the terrors of 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. ¹⁹As drought and heat consume the melting snow, so Sheol steals those who have sinned. ²⁰The womb forgets them; the worm feeds on them; they are remembered no more. So injustice is broken like a tree. ²¹They prey on the barren and childless, and show no kindness to the widow. ²²Yet by His power, God drags away the mighty; though rising up, they have no assurance of life. ²³He gives them a sense of security, but His eyes are on their ways. 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. ²⁵If this is not so, then who can prove me a liar and reduce my words to nothing?”

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Louis Segond 1910 and Berean Standard Bible: public domain. Cross references: open-cross-ref, Creative Commons BY 4.0.