14 I would arrange my cause before him,

And fill my mouth with arguments:

5 I would know the words he would answer me, And discover what he would say to me.

6 Would he contend with me in the greatness of his strength?

No, surely he hath put in me permanent existence:

7 Then might I dispute with him, upright,

I should come forth with victory from judgment.

8 Behold, I go forward, and he is not there, And backward, but I discern him not;

9 To the left, on his splendour I cannot gaze; He hides in darkness on the right, and I see not.

10 But he knoweth my ways;

When he trieth me, like gold I shall come forth.

11 My foot hath been firm in his steps,

I have kept his path and have not turned aside:

12 I have not receded from the command of his lips,

I have treasured the words of his mouth above my

daily bread.

13 But he is unchangeable, and who can turn him? His soul desireth, and he doth:

14 So he will fulfil my destination, And many ministers are with him:

15 Therefore am I terrified from his presence, I perceive, and I tremble before him:

16 And God hath made faint my heart,
The ALMIGHTY hath overcome me with fear;

17 For I am not veiled from the face of darkness, Nor from my face is the thick gloom concealed.

CHAP. XXIV.

1 WHY are not times appointed by GOD? (for

punishment.)

And why do those who know him not, behold his

days?

2 They remove the land-marks, They seize the flock and feed it ;

3 They drive away the ass of the orphan, They take the widow's ox for a pledge;

4 They turn the needy out of the way, The oppressed of the earth hide themselves together.

5 Behold, like wild-asses in the desert,

They go forth to their labour, before the dawn,

To tear up in the wilderness,

Food for themselves and their children.

6 They reap in a field not their own,
And gather the vintage for the wicked :

7 They pass the night naked, for want of clothes, And have no covering in the frost:

8 They are wet with the mountain storm, And cling to the rock for shelter:

9 The fatherless is torn from the breast, And from the poor a pledge is taken?

10 They go naked, for they have no cloathing, And from the hungry the sheaf is snatched:

11 *Between their walls they labour at noon-day, They tread the wine-press, and are thirsty.

12 Men groan from the city,

The voice of the wounded cries aloud,

But GOD sends no intercessor.

13 They are of those who rebel against the light, They know not his ways, and remain not in his paths.

14 The murderer, rising with the light,

Slayeth the oppressed and needy,

And by night he is like a thief.

15 The eye of the adulterer watches the evening breeze,

Saying, no eye will observe me;

And he puts concealment on his face.

* Between their walls. In the walled vineyards of the

oppres

sors, the poor labour, even at noon-day, when in that country it is too hot to be at all exposed to the sun, particularly between walls, where the heat is increased by reflection.

16 They dig through houses* in the dark,

By day they had marked them for themselves;
They know not the light;

17 For the morning dawn is to them as the shade of death,

To be known is the horror of death's shade.

18 They are swift on the face of the waters, They hasten their smooth way on land, They turn not the way of the vineyards.†

19 Drought and heat shall absorb the waters of the snow, Hell, sinners.

20 The womb shall forget him,

He is sweet to the worm;

He shall be no more remembered:

And perverseness shall be shivered like a tree:

They dig through houses.-The walls being of mud, and very thick.

The way of the vineyards.-To avoid the obstruction of walls, when they are escaping with their booty.