2  “Should a wise man answer with ^wwindy knowledge,

and fill his belly with the east wind?

3  Should he argue in unprofitable talk,

or in words with which he can do no good?

4  But you are doing away with the fear of God¹

and hindering meditation before God.

5  For your iniquity teaches your mouth,

and you choose the tongue of the crafty.

6  ^xYour own mouth condemns you, and not I;

your own lips testify against you.

7  ^y“Are you the first man who was born?

Or were you brought forth ^zbefore the hills?

8  Have you listened in the ^acouncil of God?

And do you limit wisdom to yourself?

9  ^bWhat do you know that we do not know?

What do you understand that is not clear to us?

10  Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us,

older than your father.

11  Are the comforts of God too small for you,

or the word that deals gently with you?

12  Why does your heart carry you away,

and why do your eyes flash,

13  that you turn your spirit against God

and bring such words out of your mouth?

14  ^cWhat is man, that he can be pure?

Or he who is born of a woman, ^dthat he can be righteous?

15  Behold, God^{2 e}puts no trust in his holy ones,

and the heavens are not pure in his sight;

16  ^fhow much less one who is abominable and corrupt,

a man who ^gdrinks injustice like water!

17  “I will show you; hear me,

and what I have seen I will declare

18  (what wise men have told,

without hiding it from their fathers,

19  to whom alone the land was given,

and no stranger passed among them).

20  The wicked man writhes in pain all his days,

through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.

21  Dreadful sounds are in his ears;

in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him.

22  He does not believe that he will return out of darkness,

and he is marked for the sword.

23  He ^hwanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’

He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand;

24  distress and anguish terrify him;

they prevail against him, like a king ready for battle.

25  Because he has stretched out his hand against God

and defies the Almighty,

26  running stubbornly against him

with a thickly bossed shield;

27  because he has covered his face with his ⁱfat

and gathered fat upon his waist

28  and has lived in desolate cities,

in houses that none should inhabit,

which were ready to become heaps of ruins;

29  he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure,

nor will his possessions spread over the earth;³

30  he will not depart from darkness;

the flame will dry up his shoots,

and by the breath of his mouth he will depart.

31  Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself,

for emptiness will be his payment.

32  It will be paid in full ^jbefore his time,

and his branch will not be green.

33  He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine,

and cast off his blossom like the olive tree.

34  For the company of the godless is barren,

and fire consumes the tents of bribery.

35  They ^kconceive trouble and give birth to evil,

and their womb prepares deceit.”

2  “I have heard many such things;

^lmiserable comforters are you all.

3  Shall ^mwindy words have an end?

Or what provokes you that you answer?

4  I also could speak as you do,

if you were in my place;

I could join words together against you

and ⁿshake my head at you.

5  I could strengthen you with my mouth,

and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

6  “If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,

and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?

7  Surely now God has worn me out;

he has⁴ made desolate all my company.

8  And he has shriveled me up,

which is a witness against me,

and ^omy leanness has risen up against me;

it testifies to my face.

9  He has torn me in his wrath and ^phated me;

he has gnashed his teeth at me;

my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.

10  ^qMen have gaped at me with their mouth;

they have struck me insolently on the cheek;

they mass themselves together against me.

11  God gives me up to the ungodly

and casts me into the hands of the wicked.

12  I was at ease, and he broke me apart;

he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;

he set me up as his ^rtarget;

13  his archers surround me.

He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare;

he pours out my gall on the ground.

14  He breaks me with breach upon breach;

he runs upon me like a warrior.

15  I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin

and have laid my strength in the dust.

16  My face is red with weeping,

and on my eyelids is deep darkness,

17  although there is ^sno violence in my hands,

and my prayer is pure.

18  “O earth, ^tcover not my blood,

and let my cry find no resting place.

19  Even now, behold, ^umy witness is in heaven,

and he who testifies for me is on high.

20  ^vMy friends scorn me;

my eye pours out tears to God,

21  that he would argue the case of a man with God,

as⁵ a son of man does with his neighbor.

22  For when a few years have come

I shall go the way ^wfrom which I shall not return.

1  Save me, O God!

For the ^owaters have come up to my neck.¹

2  I sink in deep ^pmire,

where there is no foothold;

I have come into deep waters,

and the ^qflood sweeps over me.

3  ^rI am weary with my crying out;

my throat is parched.

^sMy eyes grow dim

with waiting for my God.

4  More in number than the hairs of my head

are ^tthose who hate me ^uwithout cause;

mighty are those who would destroy me,

those who attack me with lies.

What I did not steal

must I now restore?

5  O God, you know my folly;

the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.

6  ^vLet not those who hope in you be put to shame through me,

O Lord God of hosts;

let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me,

O God of Israel.

7  For it is ^wfor your sake that I have borne reproach,

that dishonor has covered my face.

8  ^xI have become a stranger to my brothers,

an alien to my mother’s sons.

9  For ^yzeal for your house has consumed me,

and ^zthe reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

10  When I wept and humbled² my soul with ^afasting,

it became my reproach.

11  When I made sackcloth my clothing,

I became a byword to them.

12  I am the talk of those who sit in the gate,

and the drunkards make ^bsongs about me.

13  ^cBut as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord.

At an acceptable time, O God,

in the ^dabundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.

14  Deliver me

from sinking in the mire;

let me be delivered from my enemies

and from the ^edeep waters.

15  Let not the flood sweep over me,

or the deep swallow me up,

or the pit close its mouth over me.

16  Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good;

according to your abundant mercy, ^fturn to me.

17  ^gHide not your face from your servant,

for ^hI am in distress; make haste to answer me.

18  Draw near to my soul, redeem me;

ransom me because of my enemies!

19  You know my reproach,

and my shame and my dishonor;

my foes are all known to you.

20  Reproaches have broken my heart,

so that I am in despair.

I looked for pity, but there was none,

and for comforters, but I found none.

21  They gave me poison for food,

and for my ⁱthirst they gave me ^jsour wine to drink.

22  ^kLet their own table before them become a snare;

and when they are at peace, let it become a trap.³

23  Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see,

and make their loins tremble continually.

24  ^lPour out your indignation upon them,

and let your burning anger overtake them.

25  ^mMay their camp be a desolation;

let no one dwell in their tents.

26  For they persecute him whom you have struck down,

and they recount the pain of those you have wounded.

27  Add to them punishment upon punishment;

may they have no acquittal from you.⁴

28  Let them be ⁿblotted out of the ^obook of the living;

let them not be enrolled among the righteous.

29  But ^pI am afflicted and in pain;

let your salvation, O God, set me on high!

30  I will praise the name of God with a song;

I will magnify him with thanksgiving.

31  ^qThis will please the Lord more than an ox

or a bull with horns and hoofs.

32  ^rWhen the humble see it they will be glad;

you who seek God, let your hearts revive.

33  For the Lord hears the needy

and ^sdoes not despise his own people who are prisoners.

34  ^tLet heaven and earth praise him,

^uthe seas and everything that moves in them.

35  For God will save Zion

and build up the cities of Judah,

and people shall dwell there and possess it;

36  the offspring of his servants shall inherit it,

and those who ^vlove his name shall dwell in it.