1 ARST Shaddai should set times when he judges evil people. The people who obey God never seem to see him judge evil people. BSB BSB: “Why does the Almighty not reserve times for judgment? Why may those who know Him never see His days?
2 ARST Some evil people remove boundary markers so that they can steal other people’ s land. Some evil people steal other people’ s sheep and put them in with their own sheep. BSB BSB: Men move boundary stones; they pasture stolen flocks.
3 ARST Some evil people take away donkeys that belong to children who have no fathers to protect them. They make loans to widows, and then they take oxen that belong to them to guarantee that the widows will pay back the money.{ But without the oxen, the widows cannot grow crops, so they cannot repay the loans, and the evil people keep the oxen.} BSB BSB: They drive away the donkey of the fatherless and take the widow’s ox in pledge.
4 ARST Poor people do not want evil people to know where they are, so they do not walk on the main roads. Poor people stay in hiding places in order to avoid evil people. BSB BSB: They push the needy off the road and force all the poor of the land into hiding.
5 ARST In fact, poor people have to search in the desert plain for food to feed their children, as if they were wild donkeys. BSB BSB: Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go to work foraging for food; the wasteland is food for their children.
6 ARST The poor people pick up leftover grain in other people’ s fields. They gather leftover grapes from vineyards that evil people own. BSB BSB: They gather fodder in the fields and glean the vineyards of the wicked.
7 ARST During the night they do not have thick garments to cover their bodies, so they are not able to stay warm. BSB BSB: Without clothing, they spend the night naked; they have no covering against the cold.
8 ARST { Poor people have no homes, so} when rain showers come from the mountains, they get very wet. They have to huddle under rock ledges to shelter themselves from the rain. BSB BSB: Drenched by mountain rains, they huddle against the rocks for want of shelter.
9 ARST Some evil people even take babies away from their mothers while they are nursing! They take the babies as a guarantee that their mothers will repay money that they have lent them. BSB BSB: The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast; the nursing child of the poor is seized for a debt.
10 ARST Poor people do not have adequate clothing. They also do not have adequate food, even though they carry around bundles of grain because they work to bring in other people’ s harvests. BSB BSB: Without clothing, they wander about naked. They carry the sheaves, but still go hungry.
11 ARST Evil people hire poor people to make oil from olives that grow on olive trees on their property. The evil people also hire poor people to tread on grapes that grow on their vines to make juice for wine. But they do not allow the poor people to drink any of the wine when they are thirsty. BSB BSB: They crush olives within their walls; they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty.
12 ARST In the cities, poor people groan because they are suffering. People whom evil people have wounded cry out to God for help. But God does not seem to care about what the evil people are doing to them. BSB BSB: From the city, men groan, and the souls of the wounded cry out, yet God charges no one with wrongdoing.
13 ARST These evil people are like others who do not obey God. They do not try to understand what God wants or to do it. BSB BSB: Then there are those who rebel against the light, not knowing its ways or staying on its paths.
14 ARST Murderers go out in the dim light of morning so they can kill vulnerable people{ without being caught}. They are like thieves who steal things in the dark of night{ in order to avoid being caught}. BSB BSB: When daylight is gone, the murderer rises to kill the poor and needy; in the night he is like a thief.
15 ARST Men who want to commit adultery watch for evening to come. They say,‘I am going to make sure that no one recognizes me,’ and they disguise themselves. BSB BSB: The eye of the adulterer watches for twilight. Thinking, ‘No eye will see me,’ he covers his face.
16 ARST During the night, robbers find ways to get into other people’ s houses and steal things. But during the day, they stay in their own homes. They do not like being out where it is light. BSB BSB: In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves in, never to experience the light.
17 ARST These evil people all stay at home during the day because morning is as scary for them as the dark of night is for other people. They stay up at night because they like being awake at night when things happen that terrify others. BSB BSB: For to them, deep darkness is their morning; surely they are friends with the terrors of darkness!
18 ARST However, those wicked people will not live long lives. God will keep anything from growing on the land that they own. No one will go and work in their vineyards. BSB BSB: They are but foam on the surface of the water; their portion of the land is cursed, so that no one turns toward their vineyards.
19 ARST Just as water from melting snow dries up when it is hot and there is no rain, those evil people will go to the place where dead people go. BSB BSB: As drought and heat consume the melting snow, so Sheol steals those who have sinned.
20 ARST When they die, maggots will eat their corpses, and no one will remember them. Even their mothers will forget about them! Those wicked people will be like trees that fall down and rot. BSB BSB: The womb forgets them; the worm feeds on them; they are remembered no more. So injustice is broken like a tree.
21 ARST Those evil people mistreat women who do not have children to care for them. Those evil people never help widows. BSB BSB: They prey on the barren and childless, and show no kindness to the widow.
22 ARST But God, by his power, gets rid of people who hurt others because they are stronger than those others. When it is clear that God is going to punish those evil people, they know that they are going to die. BSB BSB: Yet by His power, God drags away the mighty; though rising up, they have no assurance of life.
23 ARST God allows them to think that they are secure, and so they do not worry, but God is carefully watching how they live. BSB BSB: He gives them a sense of security, but His eyes are on their ways.
24 ARST Those evil people may prosper for a little while, but suddenly they will be gone. God will show that they were not greater than others. God will make them die like all other people. Then they will be like stalks of grain that farmers have cut off. BSB BSB: They are exalted for a moment, then they are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like all others; they are cut off like heads of grain.
25 ARST What I have said is certainly true. Now that I have explained it, there is no one who can show that I am a liar and prove me wrong.” BSB BSB: If this is not so, then who can prove me a liar and reduce my words to nothing?”
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.