[1] “Why is it that God All-Powerful knows when ˻bad˼ things are going to happen to people, but his followers can’t predict when he is going to do something ˻about it˼?”
[2] “People move the property markers to get more of their neighbor’s land. People steal flocks and lead them to other grasslands.
[3] They steal the donkey that belongs to children without parents. They take a widow’s cow away from her until she pays what she owes them.
[4] They force the poor people to wander from place to place without a home. All the poor people are forced to hide from these evil people.
[5] “Poor people are like wild donkeys wandering in the desert searching for food. They get up early in the morning to search for food. They work late into the evening getting food for their children.
[6] Poor people must work late into the night cutting hay and straw in fields. They must work for rich people gathering the grapes in their fields.
[7] Poor people must sleep all night without clothes. They have no covers to protect them from the cold.
[8] They are soaked with rain in the mountains. They have nothing to protect them from the cold. So they huddle close to the large rocks.
[9] Evil people take a nursing baby from its mother. They take a poor person’s child as security for a loan.
[10] Poor people have no clothes. So they work naked. They carry piles of grain for evil people, but still they go hungry.
[11] Poor people press out olive oil. They walk on grapes in the winepress. But they have nothing to drink.
[12] In the city you can hear the sad sounds of the dying people. Those hurt people cry out for help. But God does not listen.
[13] “Some people rebel against the light. They don’t know what God wants. They don’t live the way God wants.
[14] A murderer gets up early in the morning, and kills poor, helpless people. And at night he becomes a thief.
[15] The person that does adultery, waits for the night to come. He thinks, 'No person will see me.’ But still, he covers his face.
[16] At night when it is dark, evil people go out and break into peoples’ houses. But during the daylight, they lock themselves in their own homes and avoid the light.
[17] The darkest night is like morning for those evil people. Yes, they know the terrors of that deadly darkness very well!
[18] “But the evil people are taken away like things carried away in a flood. The land they own is cursed, so they won’t gather grapes from their fields.
[19] Hot, dry weather takes away their water that came from the winter snows. So those sinners will be carried to the grave.
[20] That evil person will die and even his own mother will forget him. His sweetheart will be the worms eating his body. People will not remember him. That evil person will be broken like a rotten stick!
[21] Evil people hurt women who can’t have children. And they refuse to help women whose husbands are dead.
[22] Evil people use their power to ruin powerful men. Evil people might become powerful but they can’t be sure of their own lives.
[23] Evil people might feel safe and secure for a short time. They might want to be powerful.
[24] Bad people might be successful for awhile, but then they will be gone. They will be cut down like grain, just like everyone else.
[25] “I swear ˻(promise)˼ these things are true! Who can prove that I lied? Who can show that I am wrong?”