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v1
“Why are not times kept by Shaddai, and why do not those who know him see his days?
v2
They ^[Or “Some” (NASU, ESV) or “Men” (NIV, NET)] remove border stones; they seize flocks, and they pasture them.
v3
They drive away the donkey of orphans; they take the widow’s ox as a pledge.
v4
They thrust the poor off the road; the needy of the earth hide themselves together. ^[Or “altogether”]
v5
“Look, like wild donkeys in the desert they ^[That is, the poor] go out to their labor as searchers for the prey; the wilderness is ^[Or “provides”] their ^[Hebrew “for their”] food for the young.
v6
They reap their ^[Hebrew “his”] fodder in the field, and they glean in the vineyard of the wicked.
v7
They spend the night naked, without ^[Literally “from not”] clothing, and they have no garment in the cold.
v8
They are wet from the rainstorm of the mountains, ^[Or “from the mountain rainstorm”] and they cling to the rock without ^[Literally “from not”] refuge.
v9
“They ^[That is, those who oppress the poor] snatch the orphan from the breast, and they take a pledge against the needy. ^[Or “And they take the child of the needy as a pledge”]
v10
They ^[That is, the poor] go about naked, without clothing, and hungry, they carry the sheaves. ^[Or “and they carry the sheaves though hungry”]
v11
Between their terraces they press out oil; they tread the presses, but ^[Hebrew “and”] they are thirsty.
v12
From the city people groan, and the throat ^[Or “soul,” or “inner self”] of the wounded cries for help; yet ^[Hebrew “and”] God does not regard it as unseemly. ^[Literally “he puts offensiveness”]
v13
“Those are among the ones rebelling against the light; they do not recognize his ways, and they do not stay in his paths.
v14
At dusk ^[Literally “At the light”] the murderer rises; he kills the needy and the poor, and in the night he is like a ^[Or “the”] thief.
v15
And the eye of the adulterer waits for dusk, saying, ‘No eye will see me,’ ^[Literally “‘An eye will not see me’”] and he places a covering on his face.
v16
He digs through houses in the darkness; by day they shut themselves in— they do not know the light
v17
because morning likewise is to them deep darkness; indeed, they know about the terrors of deep darkness.
v18
“He himself ^[Emphatic personal pronoun] is swift on the water’s surface; their portion is cursed in the land. No one turns toward the path of their vineyards. ^[Literally “He does not turn toward the path of the vineyard”]
v19
Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters, like Sheol snatches away those ^[Or “they/them”] who have sinned.
v20
The womb forgets him. The maggot feasts on him until he is no longer remembered, and wickedness is broken like a ^[Or “the”] tree.
v21
He feeds on the barren, who does not have a child, and does no good to the widow.
v22
Yet ^[Hebrew “And”] he ^[The probable antecedent is God] carries off the tyrants by his strength; if he rises up, then ^[Hebrew “and”] he ^[The antecedent of the singular here probably changes to the wicked person] cannot be certain of life. ^[Hebrew “the life”]
v23
He ^[The probable antecedent is God] gives security to him, and he is ^[Or “they are”] supported, but ^[Hebrew “and”] his eyes are upon their ways.
v24
They are exalted a little while, then ^[Literally “and”] they are gone. ^[Literally “he is not”] And they are brought low; they are cut off like all others, and like the heads of grain they wither away.
v25
“And if it is not so, then who can prove me a liar and reduce my word to nothing?”