Job 24 - Easy To Read Version

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\par to get more of their neighbor’s land.\par People steal flocks and lead them\par to other grasslands.\par

³ They steal the donkey\par that belongs to children without parents.\par They take a widow’s {\cf2\super [38]} cow away from her\par until she pays what she owes them.\par

⁴ They force the poor people to wander\par from place to place without a home.\par All the poor people are forced to hide\par from these evil people.\par

⁵ “Poor people are like wild donkeys\par wandering in the desert\par searching for food.\par They get up early in the morning\par to search for food.\par They work late into the evening\par getting food for their children.\par

⁶ Poor people must work late into the night\par cutting hay and straw in fields.\par They must work for rich people {\cf2\super [40]} \par gathering the grapes in their fields.\par

⁷ Poor people must sleep all night\par without clothes.\par They have no covers to protect them\par from the cold.\par

⁸ They are soaked with rain\par in the mountains.\par They have nothing to protect them\par from the cold.\par So they huddle close to the large rocks.\par

⁹ Evil people take a nursing baby from its mother.\par They take a poor person’s child\par as security {\cf2\super [39]} for a loan.\par

¹⁰ Poor people have no clothes.\par So they work naked.\par They carry piles of grain for evil people,\par but still they go hungry.\par

¹¹ Poor people press out olive oil.\par They walk on grapes in the winepress. {\cf2\super [41]} \par But they have nothing to drink.\par

¹² In the city you can hear\par the sad sounds of the dying people.\par Those hurt people cry out for help.\par But God does not listen.\par

¹³ “Some people rebel against the light.\par They don’t know what God wants.\par They don’t live the way God wants.\par

¹⁴ A murderer gets up early in the morning,\par and kills poor, helpless people.\par And at night he becomes a thief.\par

¹⁵ The person that does adultery, {\cf2\super [42]} \par waits for the night to come.\par He thinks, ‘No person will see me.’\par But still, he covers his face.\par

¹⁶ At night when it is dark, evil people\par go out and break into peoples’ houses.\par But during the daylight, they\par lock themselves in their own homes\par and avoid the light.\par

¹⁷ The darkest night is like morning\par for those evil people.\par Yes, they know the terrors of that\par deadly darkness very well!\par

¹⁸ “But the evil people are taken away\par like things carried away in a flood.\par The land they own is cursed, {\cf2\super [43]} \par so they won’t gather grapes\par from their fields.\par

¹⁹ Hot, dry weather takes away their water\par that came from the winter snows.\par So those sinners will be carried\par to the grave.\par

²⁰ That evil person will die\par and even his own mother\par will forget him.\par His sweetheart will be the worms\par eating his body.\par People will not remember him.\par That evil person will be broken\par like a rotten stick!\par

²¹ Evil people hurt women\par who can’t have children.\par And they refuse to help women\par whose husbands are dead.\par

²² Evil people use their power\par to ruin powerful men.\par Evil people might become powerful\par but they can’t be sure of their own lives.\par

²³ Evil people might feel safe and secure\par for a short time.\par They might want to be powerful.\par

²⁴ Bad people might be successful\par for awhile,\par but then they will be gone.\par They will be cut down like grain,\par just like everyone else.\par

²⁵ “I swear (promise) these things are true!\par Who can prove that I lied?\par Who can show that I am wrong?”\par