A reading from the Book of Job.

Why are not times of judgment kept by the Almighty?

And why do those who know him never see his days?

Some move landmarks. They seize flocks and pasture them.

They drive away the donkey of the fatherless.

They take the widow's ox for a pledge.

They thrust the poor off the road.

The poor of the earth all hide themselves.

Behold, like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go out to their toil, seeking game.

The wasteland yields food for their children.

They gather their fodder in the field,

and they glean the vineyard of the wicked man. They lie all night naked without clothing,

and have no covering in the cold. They are wet with the rain of the mountains, and cling to the rock

for lack of shelter. There are those who snatch the fatherless child from the breast,

and they take a pledge against the poor.

They go about naked, without clothing, hungry, they carry the sheaves.

Among the olive rows of the wicked, they make oil.

They tread the wine presses, but suffer thirst. From out of the

city the dying groan and the soul of the wounded cries for help, yet God charges no one

with wrong. There are those who rebel against the light, who are not acquainted with its

ways and do not stay in its paths. The murderer

rises before it is light, that he may kill the poor and needy, and in the night he is like a thief.

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