² Can a man benefit God?
Can even a wise man be of any use to him?
³ Should the Almighty be delighted if you are righteous?
Does he gain any advantage if your ways are blameless?
⁴ Is it because of your reverence that he rebukes you
and comes against you in judgment?
⁵ Isn’t your wickedness great?
Isn’t your guilt endless?
⁶ You have seized collateral from your brothers without cause,
and you have stripped off clothing from the naked.
⁷ You have not given water to the weary,
and you have withheld bread from the hungry.

⁸ The earth belongs to a forceful man,
and a well-respected man dwells in it. ^[1]

⁹ You send widows away empty-handed.
You crush the arms of the fatherless.
¹⁰ That is why snares are all around you,
and sudden fear overwhelms you.
¹¹ That is why you cannot see in the darkness,
and floodwaters cover you.

¹² Is not God in the heights of heaven?
Look at ^[2] the highest stars, so high above!
¹³ But you say, “What does God know?
Can he judge through the thick darkness?
¹⁴ Dark clouds are a veil around him,
so he does not see us
as he walks back and forth in heaven’s dome.”

¹⁵ Are you the guardian of the ancient way,
    the one traveled by wicked men?
¹⁶ They were snatched away before their time. ^[3]
Their foundation was washed away by a river.
¹⁷ They said to God, “Keep away from us,”
and “What can the Almighty do to us?” ^[4]
18 even though he had filled their houses with good.
That is why the way of life of the wicked is far from me.
¹⁹ The righteous see this and are glad.
The innocent mock them, saying,
²⁰ “Surely our adversaries have been erased!
Fire has eaten up their abundance.”

²¹ Be reconciled with God.
Be at peace with him.
Then good will come to you.
²² Accept teaching from his mouth,
and set his words in your heart.
²³ If you turn to the Almighty, you will be built up.
If you want to put injustice far from your tent,
²⁴ throw your purest gold ^[5] into the dust
and your gold from Ophir upon the rocks in the ravines.
²⁵ Then the Almighty will be your purest gold
and your most precious silver.
²⁶ Then you will find pleasure in the Almighty,
and you will lift up your face to God.
²⁷ You will pray to God, and he will hear you,
and you will fulfill your vows.
²⁸ You will decide on a matter, and it will be done for you,
and light will shine on your ways.
²⁹ When people are brought low,
and you say, “Lift them up,”
God will save the downcast.
³⁰ He will deliver even the person who is not innocent,
who will escape by the purity of your hands.

² Even today my complaint is bitter. ^[6]
His ^[7] hand weighs heavily on me despite my groaning. ^[8]
3 I wish I knew where I could find him,
so that I could come to his place for judgment.
⁴ Then I would lay out my case before him,
and I would fill my mouth with arguments.
⁵ I would know what words he would use to respond to me,
and I would consider what he would say to me.
⁶ Would he use his great power to press charges against me?
No, he will certainly give me a hearing.
⁷ There, an upright man could argue with him,
and I would be delivered from my judge forever.
⁸ But if I walk to the east, he is not there.
If I go back to the west, I find no sign of him.
⁹ When he is at work in the north, I do not detect him.
When he turns to the south, I do not see him.
¹⁰ But I am sure he knows the way I take.
When he has tested me, I will come out like gold.
¹¹ My feet have followed his footsteps closely.
I have kept to his way, and I have not turned aside.
¹² I have not departed from the command from his lips.
I have treasured the sayings from his mouth in my heart. ^[9]

¹³ He stands alone.
Who can make him change?
Whatever his soul desires, he will do.
¹⁴ He carries out his decrees against me,
and he has so many of them!
¹⁵ That is why I am in a panic in his presence.
When I think about this, I dread him.
¹⁶ God has made me lose heart.
The Almighty has terrified me.
¹⁷ Nevertheless, I am not silenced by the darkness,
by the dark cloud that covers my face.

Job 24

¹ Why are appointments never scheduled by the Almighty?
Why do those who know him never see such days?
² People move boundary stones.
They steal a flock and take it to pasture.
³ They drive away donkeys that belong to the fatherless.
They seize the widow’s ox as collateral.
⁴ They shove the poor out of the way.
The oppressed people of the land hide together.
⁵ They go out to their labor, like wild donkeys in the wilderness,
    looking for food.
The wasteland is their only source of food for themselves
    and their children.
⁶ They gather their straw in the open countryside.
They glean leftovers in the vineyard of the wicked.
⁷ They spend the night naked, without clothing.
They have no covering from the cold.
⁸ They are soaked by heavy rain from the mountains.
They cling to a cliff for shelter.

⁹ The wicked tear away a fatherless child from its mother’s breast.
They take a poor mother’s nursing baby as collateral.

¹⁰ The poor walk around naked, without clothing.
They pick up sheaves but are still hungry.
¹¹ They press olive oil among the terraces of olive trees.
They tread winepresses, but they remain thirsty.
¹² The dying people ^[10] of the city groan,
and wounded souls cry out for help,
but God does not bring charges against anyone.

¹³ There are people who rebel against the light.
They do not acknowledge its ways or dwell in its paths.
¹⁴ At the end of the daylight ^[11] a murderer arises,
and he kills the poor and needy.
At night he acts as a thief.
¹⁵ The eye of an adulterer keeps watch for twilight.
He says, “No eye can get a good look at me.”
He wears a mask over his face.
¹⁶ In the dark of night he digs into houses.
By day such people hide inside.
They keep away from the light.
¹⁷ For all of them, morning is their darkness. ^[12]
They are familiar with the sudden terror of darkness.
¹⁸ They float by like foam on the surface of the water.
Their portion of the land is cursed,
so no one turns onto the road to their vineyards.
¹⁹ As drought and heat snatch away the water from the snow,
the grave snatches away a sinner.
²⁰ The womb forgets him.
A worm finds him sweet.
He will no longer be remembered.
Wickedness is broken like a tree.

²¹ He feeds on ^[13] the childless woman,
and he does nothing good for the widow.

²² But God drags away the mighty by his strength.
He rises up, so the wicked have no confidence in their lives.
²³ God lets them be secure, and they prop themselves up,
but God’s eyes are on their ways.
²⁴ They are high and mighty for a little while,
but then they are gone.
They are brought low like all the rest.
They are gathered together, like ears of grain that have been cut off.

²⁵ So then, who can make me out to be a liar?
Who can reduce my words to nothing?