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Chapter 24 |
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1 | Why, seeing times are not hidden from
the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days? |
| 2 | Some remove
the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof. |
| 3 |
They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow's ox for a
pledge. |
| 4 |
They turn the needy out of the way: the poor of the earth hide
themselves together. |
| 5 | Behold, as wild asses in the desert, go they
forth to their work; rising betimes for a prey: the wilderness yieldeth food
for them and for their children. |
| 6 | They reap every one his corn in
the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked. |
| 7 | They cause the
naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the cold.
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| 8 | They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for
want of a shelter. |
| 9 | They pluck the fatherless from the breast,
and take a pledge of the poor. |
| 10 | They cause him to go naked
without clothing, and they take away the sheaf from the hungry; |
| 11 |
Which make oil within their walls, and tread their winepresses, and suffer
thirst. |
| 12
| Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the
wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them. |
| 13 | They are of
those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide
in the paths thereof. |
| 14 | The murderer rising with the light killeth
the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief. |
| 15 | The eye also
of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and
disguiseth his face. |
| 16 | In the dark they dig through houses, which
they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light.
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| 17 | For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know
them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death. |
| 18 | He is swift
as the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth: he beholdeth not the way
of the vineyards. |
| 19 | Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so
doth the grave those which have sinned. |
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20 | The womb shall forget him;
the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered; and
wickedness shall be broken as a tree. |
| 21 | He evil entreateth the barren
that beareth not: and doeth not good to the widow. |
| 22 | He draweth
also the mighty with his power: he riseth up, and no man is sure of life.
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| 23 | Though it be given him to be in safety, whereon he resteth; yet his eyes
are upon their ways. |
| 24 | They are exalted for a little while, but are
gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all other, and cut off
as the tops of the ears of corn. |
| 25 | And if it be not so now, who
will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth? |
