24:1   Why doesn't God set a time for court? Why don't his people know where he can be found?

24:2   Sinners remove boundary markers and take care of sheep they have stolen.

24:3   They cheat orphans and widows by taking their donkeys and oxen.

24:4   The poor are trampled and forced to hide

24:5   in the desert, where they and their children must live like wild donkeys and search for food.

24:6   If they want grain or grapes, they must go to the property of these sinners.

24:7   They sleep naked in the cold, because they have no cover,

24:8   and during a storm their only shelters are caves among the rocky cliffs.

24:9   Children whose fathers have died are taken from their mothers as payment for a debt.

24:10   Then they are forced to work naked in the grain fields because they have no clothes, and they go hungry.

24:11   They crush olives to make oil and grapes to make wine-- but still they go thirsty.

24:12   And along the city streets, the wounded and dying cry out, yet God does nothing.

24:13   Some rebel and refuse to follow the light.

24:14   Soon after sunset they murder the poor and the needy, and at night they steal.

24:15   Others wait for the dark, thinking they won't be seen if they sleep with the wife or husband of someone else.

24:16   Robbers hide during the day, then break in after dark because they reject the light.

24:17   They prefer night to day, since the terrors of the night are their friends.

24:18   Those sinners are filthy foam on the surface of the water. And so, their fields and vineyards will fall under a curse and won't produce.

24:19   Just as the heat of summer swallows the snow, the world of the dead swallows those who sin.

24:20   Forgotten here on earth, and with their power broken, they taste sweet to worms.

24:21   Sinners take advantage of widows and other helpless women.

24:22   But God's mighty strength destroys those in power. Even if they seem successful, they are doomed to fail.

24:23   God may let them feel secure, but they are never out of his sight.

24:24   Great for a while; gone forever! Sinners are mowed down like weeds, then they wither and die.

24:25   If I haven't spoken the truth, then prove me wrong.