The Berean Pursuit

"Why are not times kept by Shaddai,
and why do not those who know him see his days?
They remove border stones;
they seize flocks, and they pasture them.
They drive away the donkey of orphans;
they take the widow’s ox as a pledge.
They thrust the poor off the road;
the needy of the earth hide themselves together.
"Look, like wild donkeys in the desert
they go out to their labor as searchers for the prey;
the wilderness is their food for the young.
They reap their fodder in the field,
and they glean in the vineyard of the wicked.
They spend the night naked, without clothing,
and they have no garment in the cold.
They are wet from the rainstorm of the mountains,
and they cling to the rock without refuge.
"They snatch the orphan from the breast,
and they take a pledge against the needy.
They go about naked, without clothing,
and hungry, they carry the sheaves.
Between their terraces they press out oil;
they tread the presses, but they are thirsty.
From the city people groan,
and the throat of the wounded cries for help;
yet God does not regard it as unseemly.
"Those are among the ones rebelling against the light;
they do not recognize his ways,
and they do not stay in his paths.
At dusk the murderer rises;
he kills the needy and the poor,
and in the night he is like a thief.
And the eye of the adulterer waits for dusk,
saying, ‘No eye will see me,’
and he places a covering on his face.
He digs through houses in the darkness;
by day they shut themselves in—
they do not know the light
because morning likewise is to them deep darkness;
indeed, they know about the terrors of deep darkness.
"He himself is swift on the water’s surface;
their portion is cursed in the land.
No one turns toward the path of their vineyards.
Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters,
like Sheol snatches away those who have sinned.
The womb forgets him.
The maggot feasts on him until he is no longer remembered,
and wickedness is broken like a tree.
He feeds on the barren, who does not have a child,
and does no good to the widow.
Yet he carries off the tyrants by his strength;
if he rises up, then he cannot be certain of life.
He gives security to him, and he is supported,
but his eyes are upon their ways.
They are exalted a little while, then they are gone.
And they are brought low; they are cut off like all others,
and like the heads of grain they wither away.
"And if it is not so, then who can prove me a liar
and reduce my word to nothing?"

"Domination and dread are with him
who makes peace in his high heavens.
Is there a number to his troops?
And upon whom does his light not rise?
"Indeed, how can a human being be righteous before God?
And how will he who is born of a woman be pure?
Look, even the moon is not bright,
and the stars are not pure in his sight.
How much less for a human being who is a maggot,
and a human who is a worm?"

"How you have helped one who has no power!
How you have assisted the arm that has no strength!
How you have advised one who has no wisdom!
And what sound wisdom you have made known in abundance!
With whose help have you uttered words,
and whose breath has come forth from you?
"The spirits of the dead tremble
below the waters and their inhabitants.
Sheol is naked before him,
and there is no covering for Abaddon.
He stretches out the north over emptiness;
he hangs the earth over nothing.
He ties up the water in its clouds,
and the cloud is not torn open beneath it.
He covers the face of the full moon;
he spreads his cloud over it.
He has described a circle on the face of the water
between light and darkness.
"The pillars of heaven tremble,
and they are astounded at his rebuke.
By his power he stilled the sea,
and by his understanding he struck down Rahab.
By his breath the heavens were made clear;
his hand pierced the fleeing snake.
Look, these are the outer fringes of his ways,
and how faint is the word that we hear of him!
But who can understand the thunder of his power?"

"As God lives, he has removed my justice,
and Shaddai has made my inner self bitter.
For as long as my breath is in me,
and the spirit of God is in my nose,
my lips surely will not speak falseness,
and my tongue surely will not utter deceit.
Far be it from me that I would say that you are right;
until I pass away, I will not put away from me my blamelessness.
I hold fast to my righteousness, and I will not let it go;
my heart will not blame any of my days.
"Let my enemy be like the wicked
and my opponent like the unrighteous,
for what is the hope of the godless when he cuts them off,
when God takes away his life?
Will God hear his cry of distress
when distress comes upon him?
Or, in Shaddai will he find delight?
Will he call upon God at all times?
"I will teach you about God’s hand;
I will not conceal that which is with Shaddai.
Look, you all have seen,
and why in the world have you become altogether vain?
"This is the portion of the wicked human being with God,
and they receive from Shaddai the inheritance of the ruthless.
If their children multiply, it is for the sword,
and his offspring do not have enough to eat.
Their survivors are buried through the plague,
and their widows do not weep.
If he heaps up silver like the dust
and fashions clothing like the clay,
he makes it ready, and the righteous will wear it,
and the innocent will divide the silver.
"He builds his house like the moth,
and like a booth that a watchman has made.
He goes to bed with wealth, but he will do so no more;
he opens his eyes, and it is gone.
Terrors overtake him like the water;
a storm wind carries him off in the night.
The east wind lifts him up, and he is gone,
and it sweeps him away from his place.
And it hurls at him, and it has no compassion;
he will quickly flee from its power.
It claps its hands over him,
and it hisses at him from its place.