2  “How long will you torment me

and break me in pieces with words?

3  These ^mten times you have cast reproach upon me;

are you not ashamed to wrong me?

4  And even if it be true that I have erred,

my error remains with myself.

5  If indeed you magnify yourselves against me

and make my disgrace an argument against me,

6  know then that God has ⁿput me in the wrong

and closed his net about me.

7  Behold, I cry out, ^o‘Violence!’ but I am not answered;

I call for help, but there is no justice.

8  He has ^pwalled up my way, so that I cannot pass,

and he has set darkness upon my paths.

9  He has stripped from me my glory

and taken the crown from my head.

10  He breaks me down on every side, and I am ^qgone,

and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.

11  He has kindled his wrath against me

and ^rcounts me as his adversary.

12  ^sHis troops come on together;

they have cast up their siege ramp¹ against me

and encamp around my tent.

13  ^t“He has put my brothers far from me,

and ^uthose who knew me are wholly estranged from me.

14  My relatives have failed me,

my close friends have forgotten me.

15  The guests in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger;

I have become a foreigner in their eyes.

16  I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;

I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.

17  My breath is strange to my wife,

and I am a stench to the children of my own mother.

18  Even young children despise me;

when I rise they talk against me.

19  All my intimate friends abhor me,

and those whom I loved have turned against me.

20  ^vMy bones stick to my skin and to my flesh,

and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

21  Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends,

for the hand of God has ^wtouched me!

22  Why do you, like God, pursue me?

Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?

23  ^x“Oh that my words were written!

Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

24  Oh that with an ^yiron pen and lead

they were engraved in the rock forever!

25  For I know that my Redeemer lives,

and at the last he will stand upon the earth.²

26  And after my skin has been thus destroyed,

yet in³ my flesh I shall ^zsee God,

27  whom I shall see for myself,

and my eyes shall behold, and not another.

My heart faints within me!

28  If you say, ‘How we will pursue him!’

and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’⁴

29  be afraid of the sword,

for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,

that you may know there is a judgment.”

2  “Therefore my thoughts answer me,

because of my haste within me.

3  I hear censure that insults me,

and out of my understanding a spirit answers me.

4  Do you not know this from of old,

since man was placed on earth,

5  that ^athe exulting of the wicked is short,

and the joy of the godless but for a moment?

6  Though his height mount up to the heavens,

and his head reach to the clouds,

7  he will ^bperish forever like his own dung;

those who have seen him will say, ^c‘Where is he?’

8  He will fly away like a dream and not be found;

he will be chased away like a vision of the night.

9  ^dThe eye that saw him will see him no more,

nor will ^ehis place any more behold him.

10  His children will seek the favor of the poor,

and his hands will give back his wealth.

11  His bones are full of his youthful vigor,

but it will lie down with him ^fin the dust.

12  “Though evil is sweet in his mouth,

though he hides it under his tongue,

13  though he is loath to let it go

and holds it in his mouth,

14  yet his food is turned in his stomach;

it is the venom of cobras within him.

15  He swallows down riches and vomits them up again;

God casts them out of his belly.

16  He will suck the poison of cobras;

the tongue of a viper will kill him.

17  He will not look upon the rivers,

the ^gstreams flowing with honey and curds.

18  He will give back the fruit of his toil

and will not swallow it down;

from the profit of his trading

he will get no enjoyment.

19  For he has crushed and abandoned the poor;

he has seized a house that he did not build.

20  “Because he knew no contentment in his belly,

he will not let anything in which he delights escape him.

21  There was nothing left after he had eaten;

therefore his prosperity will not endure.

22  In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress;

the hand of everyone in misery will come against him.

23  To fill his belly to the full,

God¹ will send his burning anger against him

and rain it upon him into his body.

24  ^hHe will flee from an iron weapon;

a bronze arrow will strike him through.

25  It is drawn forth and comes out of his body;

the glittering point comes out of his gallbladder;

terrors come upon him.

26  Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures;

a fire not fanned will devour him;

what is left in his tent will be consumed.

27  The heavens will reveal his iniquity,

and ⁱthe earth will rise up against him.

28  The possessions of his house will be carried away,

dragged off in the day of God’s² wrath.

29  This is ^jthe wicked man’s portion from God,

the heritage decreed for him by God.”

2  ^k“Keep listening to my words,

and let this be your comfort.

3  Bear with me, and I will speak,

and after I have spoken, mock on.

4  As for me, is my ^lcomplaint against man?

Why should I not be impatient?

5  Look at me and be appalled,

and ^mlay your hand over your mouth.

6  When I remember, I am dismayed,

and shuddering seizes my flesh.

7  ⁿWhy do the wicked live,

reach old age, and grow mighty in power?

8  Their offspring are established in their presence,

and their descendants before their eyes.

9  ^oTheir houses are safe from fear,

and no ^prod of God is upon them.

10  Their bull breeds without fail;

their cow calves and does ^qnot miscarry.

11  They send out their little boys like a flock,

and their children dance.

12  They sing to the tambourine and the lyre

and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.

13  They spend their days in prosperity,

and in peace they go down to Sheol.

14  ^rThey say to God, ‘Depart from us!

We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.

15  What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?

And ^swhat profit do we get if we pray to him?’

16  Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand?

The ^tcounsel of the wicked is far from me.

17  “How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?

That their calamity comes upon them?

That God¹ distributes pains in his anger?

18  That they are like straw before the wind,

and like chaff that the storm carries away?

19  You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity ^ufor their children.’

Let him pay it out to them, that they may know it.

20  Let their own eyes see their destruction,

and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

21  For what do they care for their houses after them,

when the ^vnumber of their months is cut off?

22  Will any teach God knowledge,

seeing that he judges those who are on high?

23  One dies in his full vigor,

being wholly at ease and secure,

24  his pails² full of milk

and the marrow of his bones moist.

25  Another dies in bitterness of soul,

never having tasted of prosperity.

26  They lie down ^walike ^xin the dust,

and the worms cover them.

27  “Behold, I know your thoughts

and your schemes to wrong me.

28  For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince?

Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’

29  Have you not asked those who travel the roads,

and do you not accept their testimony

30  that the evil man is spared in the day of calamity,

that he is rescued in the day of wrath?

31  Who declares his way to his face,

and who repays him for what he has done?

32  When he is carried to the grave,

watch is kept over his tomb.

33  The clods of the valley are sweet to him;

all mankind follows after him,

and those who go before him are innumerable.

34  How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?

There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”

2  ^y“Can a man be profitable to God?

Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.

3  ^zIs it any pleasure to the Almighty if ^ayou are in the right,

or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?

4  Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you

and enters into judgment with you?

5  Is not your evil abundant?

There is no end to your iniquities.

6  For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing

and stripped the naked of their clothing.

7  ^bYou have given no water to the weary to drink,

and you have withheld bread from the hungry.

8  The man with power possessed the land,

and the favored man lived in it.

9  You have sent ^cwidows away empty,

and the arms of the fatherless were crushed.

10  Therefore snares are all around you,

and sudden terror overwhelms you,

11  or darkness, so that you cannot see,

and ^da flood of water covers you.

12  “Is not God ^ehigh in the heavens?

See the highest stars, how lofty they are!

13  But you say, ^f‘What does God know?

Can he judge through the ^gdeep darkness?

14  Thick clouds veil him, so that he does not see,

and he walks on the ^hvault of heaven.’

15  Will you keep to the old way

that wicked men have trod?

16  They were snatched away ⁱbefore their time;

their foundation was washed away.¹

17  ^jThey said to God, ‘Depart from us,’

and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’²

18  Yet he filled their houses with good things—

but the ^kcounsel of the wicked is far from me.

19  ^lThe righteous see it and are glad;

the innocent one mocks at them,

20  saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off,

and what they left the fire has consumed.’

21  “Agree with God, and be at peace;

thereby good will come to you.

22  Receive instruction from his mouth,

and lay up his words in your heart.

23  ^mIf you return to the Almighty you will be built up;

if you remove ⁿinjustice far from your tents,

24  if you lay gold in the dust,

and gold of ^oOphir among the stones of the torrent-bed,

25  then the Almighty will be your gold

and your precious silver.

26  For then you will ^pdelight yourself in the Almighty

and ^qlift up your face to God.

27  You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you,

and you will pay your vows.

28  You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you,

and light will shine on your ways.

29  For when they are humbled you say, ‘It is because of pride’;³

but ^rhe saves the lowly.

30  He delivers even the one who is not innocent,

who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”

2  “Today also my ^scomplaint is bitter;¹

^tmy hand is heavy on account of my groaning.

3  ^uOh, that I knew where I might find him,

that I might come even to his seat!

4  ^vI would lay my case before him

and fill my mouth with arguments.

5  I would know what he would answer me

and understand what he would say to me.

6  Would he ^wcontend with me in the greatness of his power?

No; he would pay attention to me.

7  There an upright man could argue with him,

and I would be acquitted forever by my judge.

8  ^x“Behold, I go forward, but he is not there,

and backward, but I do not perceive him;

9  on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him;

he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him.

10  But ^yhe knows the way that I take;

when he has ^ztried me, I shall come out as gold.

11  ^aMy foot has held fast to his steps;

I have kept his way and have not turned aside.

12  I have not departed from the commandment of his lips;

I have ^btreasured the words of his mouth ^cmore than my portion of food.

13  But he is unchangeable,² and ^dwho can turn him back?

What he desires, that he does.

14  For he will ^ecomplete what he appoints for me,

and many such things are in his mind.

15  Therefore I am terrified at his presence;

when I consider, I am in dread of him.

16  God has made my heart faint;

the Almighty has terrified me;

17  yet I am not silenced because of the darkness,

nor because thick darkness covers my face.