Good News Translation GNT
New International Version NIV
1 Why doesn't God set a time for judging, a day of justice for those who serve him?
1
“Why does the Almighty not set times for judgment? Why must those who know him look in vain for such days?
2 People move property lines to get more land; they steal sheep and put them with their own flocks.
2
There are those who move boundary stones; they pasture flocks they have stolen.
3 They take donkeys that belong to orphans, and keep a widow's ox till she pays her debts.
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They drive away the orphan’s donkey and take the widow’s ox in pledge.
4 They prevent the poor from getting their rights and force the needy to run and hide.
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They thrust the needy from the path and force all the poor of the land into hiding.
5 So the poor, like wild donkeys, search for food in the dry wilderness; nowhere else can they find food for their children.
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Like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go about their labor of foraging food; the wasteland provides food for their children.
6 They have to harvest fields they don't own, and gather grapes in vineyards of the wicked.
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They gather fodder in the fields and glean in the vineyards of the wicked.
7 At night they sleep with nothing to cover them, nothing to keep them from the cold.
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Lacking clothes, they spend the night naked; they have nothing to cover themselves in the cold.
8 They are drenched by the rain that falls on the mountains, and they huddle beside the rocks for shelter.
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They are drenched by mountain rains and hug the rocks for lack of shelter.
9 Evil people make slaves of fatherless infants and take the children of the poor in payment for debts.
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The fatherless child is snatched from the breast; the infant of the poor is seized for a debt.
10 But the poor must go out with no clothes to protect them; they must go hungry while harvesting wheat.
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Lacking clothes, they go about naked; they carry the sheaves, but still go hungry.
11 They press olives for oil, and grapes for wine, but they themselves are thirsty.
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They crush olives among the terraces ; they tread the winepresses, yet suffer thirst.
12 In the cities the wounded and dying cry out, but God ignores their prayers.
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The groans of the dying rise from the city, and the souls of the wounded cry out for help. But God charges no one with wrongdoing.
13 There are those who reject the light; they don't understand it or go where it leads.
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“There are those who rebel against the light, who do not know its ways or stay in its paths.
14 At dawn the murderer gets up and goes out to kill the poor, and at night he steals.
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When daylight is gone, the murderer rises up, kills the poor and needy, and in the night steals forth like a thief.
15 The adulterer waits for twilight to come; he covers his face so that no one can see him.
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The eye of the adulterer watches for dusk; he thinks, ‘No eye will see me,’ and he keeps his face concealed.
16 At night thieves break into houses, but by day they hide and avoid the light.
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In the dark, thieves break into houses, but by day they shut themselves in; they want nothing to do with the light.
17 They fear the light of day, but darkness holds no terror for them.
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For all of them, midnight is their morning; they make friends with the terrors of darkness.
18 The wicked are swept away by floods, and the land they own is under God's curse; they no longer go to work in their vineyards.
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“Yet they are foam on the surface of the water; their portion of the land is cursed, so that no one goes to the vineyards.
19 As snow vanishes in heat and drought, so sinners vanish from the land of the living.
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As heat and drought snatch away the melted snow, so the grave snatches away those who have sinned.
20 Not even their mothers remember them now; they are eaten by worms and destroyed like fallen trees.
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The womb forgets them, the worm feasts on them; the wicked are no longer remembered but are broken like a tree.
21 That happens because they mistreated widows and showed no kindness to childless women.
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They prey on the barren and childless woman, and to the widow they show no kindness.
22 God, in his strength, destroys the mighty; God acts - and the wicked die.
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But God drags away the mighty by his power; though they become established, they have no assurance of life.
23 God may let them live secure, but keeps an eye on them all the time.
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He may let them rest in a feeling of security, but his eyes are on their ways.
24 For a while the wicked prosper, but then they wither like weeds, like stalks of grain that have been cut down.
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For a little while they are exalted, and then they are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like all others; they are cut off like heads of grain.
25 Can anyone deny that this is so? Can anyone prove that my words are not true?
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“If this is not so, who can prove me false and reduce my words to nothing?”
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.