¹Why, seeing that the times are not hidden from the Almighty,

And they are known,

Do they not see his dealings?

²They move boundaries,

And they snatch away a flock

And pasture it.

³They drive away an orphan's donkey;

They take away a widow's ox as security.

⁴They turn the poor aside from the way;

The poor of the earth are driven into hiding together.

⁵See how as wild asses in the desert they go out

In their business of diligently seeking food.

An arid tract is feeding ground

For each and for their young.

⁶In the field they reap their food,

And they glean the vineyard of a wicked man.

⁷They spend the night naked for lack of clothing,

And they have no covering in the cold.

⁸They become wet with mountain rainstorms,

And for lack of shelter they embrace a rock.

⁹They tear away the orphan for gain,

And they enslave the poor with debt.

¹⁰They cause him to go naked for lack of clothing,

And they take away the sheaf from the hungry.

¹¹Within their walls they press out new oil;

They tread the wine vats,

Yet are thirsty.

¹²From the city, men groan,

And the inward being of the wounded cries out,

Yet God does not impute them their depravity.

¹³These people are those who rebel against the light;

They do not recognize his ways,

And they do not remain in his paths.

¹⁴At first light the murderer rises

And kills the poor and needy,

And at night he is a thief.

¹⁵The eye of the adulterer observes darkness,

Saying, ‘No eye shall behold me’,

And he puts a covering on his face.

¹⁶He breaks into houses in the darkness,

Which in the daytime they mark out for themselves.

They do not know the light.

¹⁷For the morning for them is altogether the shadow of death,

For each knows the terrors of the shadow of death,

¹⁸Which is swift upon the surface of the water;

Their portion is cursed upon the earth.

He will not return to the way of the vineyards.

¹⁹As drought and heat snatch away the snowy waters,

So the grave snatches those who have sinned.

²⁰The womb will disown him;

The worm will feed sweetly on him.

He will no longer be remembered,

And iniquity will be shivered like a tree.

²¹He devours the barren,

Who has not given birth,

And to the widow he does not do good.

²²He drags away the mighty by his strength;

He rises,

And no-one is sure of his life.

²³God grants him security,

And he relies on it,

But his eyes are on their ways.

²⁴They are exalted for a little while,

Then they are gone,

And they waste away.

Like all others, they are gathered into the grave.

And like the top of a stem of corn,

They are cut off.

²⁵And if it is not so, who will convict me of falsehood

And make my speech null and void?”