2  “How long will you hunt for words?

Consider, and then we will speak.

3  Why are we counted as cattle?

Why are we ^estupid in your sight?

4  You who tear yourself in your anger,

shall the earth be forsaken for you,

or ^fthe rock be removed out of its place?

5  “Indeed, the ^glight of the wicked is put out,

and the flame of his fire does not shine.

6  The light is dark in his tent,

and his lamp above him is put out.

7  His strong steps are shortened,

and his own ^hschemes throw him down.

8  For he is cast into a ⁱnet by his own feet,

and he walks on its mesh.

9  A trap seizes him by the heel;

a snare lays hold of him.

10  A rope is hidden for him in the ground,

a trap for him in the path.

11  Terrors frighten him on every side,

and chase him at his heels.

12  His strength is famished,

and calamity is ^jready for his stumbling.

13  It consumes the parts of his skin;

the firstborn of death consumes his limbs.

14  He is torn from the tent in which he trusted

and is brought to the king of terrors.

15  In his tent dwells that which is none of his;

sulfur is scattered over his habitation.

16  His roots dry up beneath,

and his branches wither above.

17  ^kHis memory perishes from the earth,

and he has no name in the street.

18  He is thrust from light into darkness,

and driven out of the world.

19  He has no posterity or progeny among his people,

and no survivor where he used to live.

20  They of the west are appalled at his day,

and horror seizes them of the east.

21  Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous,

such is the place of him who ^lknows not God.”

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,

God⁵ 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’s⁶ wrath.

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

the heritage decreed for him by God.”

1  O Lord, I call upon you; ^ghasten to me!

Give ear to my voice when I call to you!

2  Let my ^hprayer be counted as incense before you,

and the lifting up of my hands as ⁱthe evening sacrifice!

3  ^jSet a guard, O Lord, over my mouth;

^kkeep watch over the door of my lips!

4  Do not let my heart incline to any evil,

to busy myself with wicked deeds

in company with men who work iniquity,

and let me not eat of their delicacies!

5  ^lLet a righteous man strike me—it is a kindness;

let him rebuke me—it is oil for my head;

let my head not refuse it.

Yet my prayer is continually against their evil deeds.

6  When their judges are thrown over the cliff,¹

then they shall hear my words, for they are pleasant.

7  As when one plows and breaks up the earth,

so shall our bones be scattered at the mouth of Sheol.²

8  But my eyes are toward you, O God, my Lord;

in you I seek refuge; leave me not defenseless!³

9  Keep me from the trap that they have laid for me

and from the snares of evildoers!

10  Let the wicked fall into their own ^mnets,

while I pass by safely.

“Great and amazing are your deeds,

O Lord God the Almighty!

^dJust and true are your ways,

O King of the nations!¹

4  ^eWho will not ^ffear, O Lord,

and glorify your name?

For you alone are ^gholy.

^hAll nations will come

and worship you,

for your righteous acts have been revealed.”