Good News Translation GNT
World English Bible WEB
1 Why doesn't God set a time for judging, a day of justice for those who serve him?
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"Why aren't times laid up by the Almighty? Why don't those who know him see his days?
2 People move property lines to get more land; they steal sheep and put them with their own flocks.
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There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them.
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 donkey of the fatherless, And they take the widow's ox for a pledge.
4 They prevent the poor from getting their rights and force the needy to run and hide.
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They turn the needy out of the way. The poor of the earth all hide themselves.
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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Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, They go forth to their work, seeking diligently for food; The wilderness yields them bread 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 cut their provender in the field. They glean the vineyard of the wicked.
7 At night they sleep with nothing to cover them, nothing to keep them from the cold.
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They lie all night naked without clothing, And have no covering 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 wet with the showers of the mountains, And embrace the rock for lack of a shelter.
9 Evil people make slaves of fatherless infants and take the children of the poor in payment for debts.
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There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, And take a pledge of the poor,
10 But the poor must go out with no clothes to protect them; they must go hungry while harvesting wheat.
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So that they go around naked without clothing. Being hungry, they carry the sheaves.
11 They press olives for oil, and grapes for wine, but they themselves are thirsty.
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They make oil within the walls of these men. They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst.
12 In the cities the wounded and dying cry out, but God ignores their prayers.
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From out of the populous city, men groan. The soul of the wounded cries out, Yet God doesn't regard the folly.
13 There are those who reject the light; they don't understand it or go where it leads.
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"These are of those who rebel against the light; They don't know the ways of it, Nor abide in the paths of it.
14 At dawn the murderer gets up and goes out to kill the poor, and at night he steals.
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The murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy. In the night he is 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 also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, Saying, 'No eye shall see me.' He disguises his face.
16 At night thieves break into houses, but by day they hide and avoid the light.
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In the dark they dig through houses. They shut themselves up in the daytime. They don't know the light.
17 They fear the light of day, but darkness holds no terror for them.
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For the morning is to all of them like thick darkness, For they know the terrors of the thick 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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"They are foam on the surface of the waters. Their portion is cursed in the earth: They don't turn into the way of the vineyards.
19 As snow vanishes in heat and drought, so sinners vanish from the land of the living.
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Drought and heat consume the snow waters; So does Sheol 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 shall forget him. The worm shall feed sweetly on him. He shall be no more remembered. Unrighteousness shall be broken as a tree.
21 That happens because they mistreated widows and showed no kindness to childless women.
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He devours the barren who don't bear. He shows no kindness to the widow.
22 God, in his strength, destroys the mighty; God acts - and the wicked die.
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Yet God preserves the mighty by his power. He rises up who has no assurance of life.
23 God may let them live secure, but keeps an eye on them all the time.
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God gives them security, and they rest in it. 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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They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone. Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others, And are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.
25 Can anyone deny that this is so? Can anyone prove that my words are not true?
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If it isn't so now, who will prove me a liar, And make my speech worth nothing?"
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
The World English Bible is in the public domain.