Dual PanelJob continuesWhy doesn't God set a time?
1Why doesn't God set a time for court? Why don't his people know where he can be found?
2Sinners remove boundary markers and take care of sheep they have stolen.
3They cheat orphans and widows by taking their donkeys and oxen.
4The poor are trampled and forced to hide
5in the desert, where they and their children must live like wild donkeys and search for food.
6If they want grain or grapes, they must go to the property of these sinners.
7They sleep naked in the cold, because they have no cover,
8and during a storm their only shelters are caves among the rocky cliffs.
9Children whose fathers have died are taken from their mothers as payment for a debt.
10Then they are forced to work naked in the grain fields because they have no clothes, and they go hungry.
11They crush olives to make oil and grapes to make wine— but still they go thirsty.
12And along the city streets, the wounded and dying cry out, yet God does nothing.
Some reject the light
13 Some rebel and refuse to follow the light.
14Soon after sunset they murder the poor and the needy, and at night they steal.
15Others wait for the dark, thinking they won't be seen if they sleep with the wife or husband of someone else.
16Robbers hide during the day, then break in after dark because they reject the light.
17They prefer night to day, since the terrors of the night are their friends.
Sinners are filthy foam
18 Those sinners are filthy foam on the surface of the water. And so, their fields and vineyards will fall under a curse and won't produce.
19Just as the heat of summer swallows the snow, the world of the dead swallows those who sin.
20Forgotten here on earth, and with their power broken, they taste sweet to worms.
21Sinners take advantage of widows and other helpless women.
22But God's mighty strength destroys those in power. Even if they seem successful, they are doomed to fail.
23God may let them feel secure, but they are never out of his sight.
24Great for a while; gone for ever! Sinners are mowed down like weeds, then they wither and die.
25If I haven't spoken the truth, then prove me wrong.