24:2 Men 1 move boundary stones;
they seize the flock and pasture them. 2
24:3 They drive away the orphan’s donkey;
they take the widow’s ox as a pledge.
24:4 They turn the needy from the pathway,
and the poor of the land hide themselves together. 3
24:5 Like 4 wild donkeys in the desert
they 5 go out to their labor, 6
seeking diligently for food;
the wasteland provides 7 food for them
and for their children.
24:6 They reap fodder 8 in the field,
and glean 9 in the vineyard of the wicked.
24:7 They spend the night naked because they lack clothing;
they have no covering against the cold.
24:8 They are soaked by mountain rains
and huddle 10 in the rocks because they lack shelter.
24:9 The fatherless child is snatched 11 from the breast, 12
the infant of the poor is taken as a pledge. 13
24:10 They go about naked, without clothing,
and go hungry while they carry the sheaves. 14
24:11 They press out the olive oil between the rows of olive trees; 15
they tread the winepresses while they are thirsty. 16
24:12 From the city the dying 17 groan,
and the wounded 18 cry out for help,
but God charges no one with wrongdoing. 19
24:13 There are those 20 who rebel against the light;
they do not know its ways
and they do not stay on its paths.
24:14 Before daybreak 21 the murderer rises up;
he kills the poor and the needy;
in the night he is 22 like a thief. 23
24:15 And the eye of the adulterer watches for the twilight,
thinking, 24 ‘No eye can see me,’
and covers his face with a mask.
24:16 In the dark the robber 25 breaks into houses, 26
but by day they shut themselves in; 27
they do not know the light. 28