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.

24  “Why are not times of judgment kept by the Almighty,

and why do those who know him never see his ^fdays?

2  Some ^gmove landmarks;

they seize flocks and pasture them.

3  They drive away the donkey of the fatherless;

they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.

4  They ^hthrust the poor off the road;

the poor of the earth all hide themselves.

5  Behold, like ⁱwild donkeys in the desert

the poor¹ go out to their toil, seeking game;

the wasteland yields food for their children.

6  They gather their² fodder in the field,

and they glean the vineyard of the wicked man.

7  ^jThey lie all night naked, without clothing,

and have no covering in the cold.

8  They are wet with the rain of the mountains

and cling to the rock for lack of shelter.

9  (There are those who snatch the fatherless child from the breast,

and they take a pledge against the poor.)

10  They go about naked, without clothing;

hungry, they carry the sheaves;

11  among the olive rows of the wicked³ they make oil;

^kthey tread the winepresses, but suffer thirst.

12  From out of the city the dying⁴ groan,

and the soul of the wounded cries for help;

yet God charges no one with wrong.

13  “There are those who rebel against the light,

who are not acquainted with its ways,

and do not stay in its paths.

14  The murderer rises before it is light,

that he may kill the poor and needy,

and in the night he is like a thief.

15  The eye of the adulterer also waits for the ^ltwilight,

saying, ‘No eye will see me’;

and he veils his face.

16  In the dark they dig through houses;

by day they shut themselves up;

they do not know the light.

17  For deep darkness is morning to all of them;

for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.

18  “You say, ‘Swift are they on the face of the waters;

their portion is cursed in the land;

no treader turns toward their vineyards.

19  Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters;

so does Sheol those who have sinned.

20  The womb forgets them;

the worm finds them sweet;

^mthey are no longer remembered,

so wickedness is broken like a tree.’

21  “They wrong the barren, childless woman,

and do no good to the widow.

22  Yet God⁵ prolongs the life of the mighty by his power;

they rise up when they despair of life.

23  He gives them security, and they are supported,

and ⁿhis eyes are upon their ways.

24  ^oThey are exalted a little while, and then are gone;

they are brought low and gathered up like all others;

they are cut off like the heads of grain.

25  If it is not so, ^pwho will prove me a liar

and show that there is nothing in what I say?”

2  “Dominion and fear are with God;¹

he makes peace in his high heaven.

3  Is there any number to his armies?

Upon whom does his light not arise?

4  ^qHow then can man be in the right before God?

How can he who is born of woman be pure?

5  Behold, even the moon is not bright,

and the stars are not pure in his eyes;

6  ^rhow much less man, who is a maggot,

and the ^sson of man, who is a worm!”