New Living Translation

1 “Why doesn’t the Almighty bring the wicked to judgment?<br>Why must the godly wait for him in vain?<br> 2 Evil people steal land by moving the boundary markers.<br>They steal livestock and put them in their own pastures.<br> 3 They take the orphan’s donkey<br>and demand the widow’s ox as security for a loan.<br> 4 The poor are pushed off the path;<br>the needy must hide together for safety.<br> 5 Like wild donkeys in the wilderness,<br>the poor must spend all their time looking for food,<br>searching even in the desert for food for their children.<br> 6 They harvest a field they do not own,<br>and they glean in the vineyards of the wicked.<br> 7 All night they lie naked in the cold,<br>without clothing or covering.<br> 8 They are soaked by mountain showers,<br>and they huddle against the rocks for want of a home.<br> 9 “The wicked snatch a widow’s child from her breast,<br>taking the baby as security for a loan.<br> 10 The poor must go about naked, without any clothing.<br>They harvest food for others while they themselves are starving.<br> 11 They press out olive oil without being allowed to taste it,<br>and they tread in the winepress as they suffer from thirst.<br> 12 The groans of the dying rise from the city,<br>and the wounded cry for help,<br>yet God (Elohim) ignores their moaning.<br> 13 “Wicked people rebel against the light.<br>They refuse to acknowledge its ways<br>or stay in its paths.<br> 14 The murderer rises in the early dawn<br>to kill the poor and needy;<br>at night he is a thief.<br> 15 The adulterer waits for the twilight,<br>saying, ‘No one will see me then.’<br>He hides his face so no one will know him.<br> 16 Thieves break into houses at night<br>and sleep in the daytime.<br>They are not acquainted with the light.<br> 17 The black night is their morning.<br>They ally themselves with the terrors of the darkness.<br> 18 “But they disappear like foam down a river.<br>Everything they own is cursed,<br>and they are afraid to enter their own vineyards.<br> 19 The grave consumes sinners<br>just as drought and heat consume snow.<br> 20 Their own mothers will forget them.<br>Maggots will find them sweet to eat.<br>No one will remember them.<br>Wicked people are broken like a tree in the storm.<br> 21 They cheat the woman who has no son to help her.<br>They refuse to help the needy widow.<br> 22 “God (Elohim), in his power, drags away the rich.<br>They may rise high, but they have no assurance of life.<br> 23 They may be allowed to live in security,<br>but God (Elohim) is always watching them.<br> 24 And though they are great now,<br>in a moment they will be gone like all others,<br>cut off like heads of grain.<br> 25 Can anyone claim otherwise?<br>Who can prove me wrong?”<br>