Job 24 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

Job Asks Why the Wicked Are Not Punished

Job 24:1

Job 24:1“Why doesn’t the Almighty bring the wicked to judgment?
Why must the godly wait for him in vain?

Job 24:2

Job 24:2Evil people steal land by moving the boundary markers.
They steal livestock and put them in their own pastures.

Job 24:3

Job 24:3They take the orphan’s donkey
and demand the widow’s ox as security for a loan.

Job 24:4

Job 24:4The poor are pushed off the path;
the needy must hide together for safety.

Job 24:5

Job 24:5Like 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.

Job 24:6

Job 24:6They harvest a field they do not own,
and they glean in the vineyards of the wicked.

Job 24:7

Job 24:7All night they lie naked in the cold,
without clothing or covering.

Job 24:8

Job 24:8They are soaked by mountain showers,
and they huddle against the rocks for want of a home.

Job 24:9

Job 24:9“The wicked snatch a widow’s child from her breast,
taking the baby as security for a loan.

Job 24:10

Job 24:10The poor must go about naked, without any clothing.
They harvest food for others while they themselves are starving.

Job 24:11

Job 24:11They press out olive oil without being allowed to taste it,
and they tread in the winepress as they suffer from thirst.

Job 24:12

Job 24:12The groans of the dying rise from the city,
and the wounded cry for help,
yet God ignores their moaning.

Job 24:13

Job 24:13“Wicked people rebel against the light.
They refuse to acknowledge its ways
or stay in its paths.

Job 24:14

Job 24:14The murderer rises in the early dawn
to kill the poor and needy;
at night he is a thief.

Job 24:15

Job 24:15The adulterer waits for the twilight,
saying, ‘No one will see me then.’
He hides his face so no one will know him.

Job 24:16

Job 24:16Thieves break into houses at night
and sleep in the daytime.
They are not acquainted with the light.

Job 24:17

Job 24:17The black night is their morning.
They ally themselves with the terrors of the darkness.

Job 24:18

Job 24:18“But they disappear like foam down a river.
Everything they own is cursed,
and they are afraid to enter their own vineyards.

Job 24:19

Job 24:19The grave[fn] consumes sinners
just as drought and heat consume snow.

Job 24:20

Job 24:20Their 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.

Job 24:21

Job 24:21They cheat the woman who has no son to help her.
They refuse to help the needy widow.

Job 24:22

Job 24:22“God, in his power, drags away the rich.
They may rise high, but they have no assurance of life.

Job 24:23

Job 24:23They may be allowed to live in security,
but God is always watching them.

Job 24:24

Job 24:24And though they are great now,
in a moment they will be gone like all others,
cut off like heads of grain.

Job 24:25

Job 24:25Can anyone claim otherwise?
Who can prove me wrong?”

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NLT Footnotes

(24:19)

Hebrew Sheol.

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