Job Chapter 24
The question" Why do innocent people suffer?" Is addressed in this biblical story.
American King James Version
24 : 1 Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days?
24 : 2 Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.
24 : 3 They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow's ox for a pledge.
24 : 4 They turn the needy out of the way: the poor of the earth hide themselves together.
24 : 5 Behold, as wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their work; rising betimes for a prey: the wilderness yields food for them and for their children.
24 : 6 They reap every one his corn in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked.
24 : 7 They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the cold.
24 : 8 They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter.
24 : 9 They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor.
24 : 10 They cause him to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaf from the hungry;
24 : 11 Which make oil within their walls, and tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst.
24 : 12 Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded cries out: yet God lays not folly to them.
24 : 13 They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.
24 : 14 The murderer rising with the light kills the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief.
24 : 15 The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguises his face.
24 : 16 In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light.
24 : 17 For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.
24 : 18 He is swift as the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth: he beholds not the way of the vineyards.
24 : 19 Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so does the grave those which have sinned.
24 : 20 The womb shall forget him; the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a tree.
24 : 21 He evil entreats the barren that bears not: and does not good to the widow.
24 : 22 He draws also the mighty with his power: he rises up, and no man is sure of life.
24 : 23 Though it be given him to be in safety, where on he rests; yet his eyes are on their ways.
24 : 24 They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all other, and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.
24 : 25 And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?