24:1   Why doesn't God set a time for judging, a day of justice for those who serve him?

24:2   People move property lines to get more land; they steal sheep and put them with their own flocks.

24:3   They take donkeys that belong to orphans, and keep a widow's ox till she pays her debts.

24:4   They prevent the poor from getting their rights and force the needy to run and hide.

24:5   So the poor, like wild donkeys, search for food in the dry wilderness; nowhere else can they find food for their children.

24:6   They have to harvest fields they don't own, and gather grapes in vineyards of the wicked.

24:7   At night they sleep with nothing to cover them, nothing to keep them from the cold.

24:8   They are drenched by the rain that falls on the mountains, and they huddle beside the rocks for shelter.

24:9   Evil people make slaves of fatherless infants and take the children of the poor in payment for debts.

24:10   But the poor must go out with no clothes to protect them; they must go hungry while harvesting wheat.

24:11   They press olives for oil, and grapes for wine, but they themselves are thirsty.

24:12   In the cities the wounded and dying cry out, but God ignores their prayers.

24:13   There are those who reject the light; they don't understand it or go where it leads.

24:14   At dawn the murderer gets up and goes out to kill the poor, and at night he steals.

24:15   The adulterer waits for twilight to come; he covers his face so that no one can see him.

24:16   At night thieves break into houses, but by day they hide and avoid the light.

24:17   They fear the light of day, but darkness holds no terror for them.

24:18   The wicked are swept away by floods, and the land they own is under God's curse; they no longer go to work in their vineyards.

24:19   As snow vanishes in heat and drought, so sinners vanish from the land of the living.

24:20   Not even their mothers remember them now; they are eaten by worms and destroyed like fallen trees.

24:21   That happens because they mistreated widows and showed no kindness to childless women.

24:22   God, in his strength, destroys the mighty; God acts---and the wicked die.

24:23   God may let them live secure, but keeps an eye on them all the time.

24:24   For a while the wicked prosper, but then they wither like weeds, like stalks of grain that have been cut down.

24:25   Can anyone deny that this is so? Can anyone prove that my words are not true?