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 pails¹ 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.²

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

and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’³

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’;⁴

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;⁵

^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,⁶ 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.

1  “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 poor⁷ go out to their toil, seeking game;

the wasteland yields food for their children.

6  They gather their⁸ 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 wicked⁹ they make oil;

^kthey tread the winepresses, but suffer thirst.

12  From out of the city the dying¹⁰ 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 God¹¹ 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;¹²

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!”

2  “How you have helped him who has no power!

How you have saved the arm that has no strength!

3  ^tHow you have counseled him who has no wisdom,

and plentifully declared sound knowledge!

4  With whose help have you uttered words,

and ^uwhose breath has come out from you?

5  The dead tremble

under the waters and their inhabitants.

6  ^vSheol is naked before God,¹³

and Abaddon has no covering.

7  He stretches out the north over the void

and hangs the earth on nothing.

8  He binds up the waters in his thick clouds,

and the cloud is not split open under them.

9  He covers the face of the full moon¹⁴

and spreads over it his cloud.

10  He has ^winscribed a circle on the face of the waters

at the boundary between light and darkness.

11  ^xThe pillars of heaven tremble

and are astounded at his rebuke.

12  ^yBy his power he stilled the sea;

by his understanding he shattered ^zRahab.

13  By his wind the heavens were made fair;

his hand pierced ^athe fleeing serpent.

14  Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways,

and how small a whisper do we hear of him!

But the thunder of his power who can understand?”

2  “As God lives, ^cwho has taken away my right,

and the Almighty, who has made my soul ^dbitter,

3  as long as my breath is in me,

and ^ethe spirit of God is in my nostrils,

4  ^fmy lips will not speak falsehood,

and my tongue will not utter deceit.

5  Far be it from me to say that you are right;

^gtill I die I will not put away my ^hintegrity from me.

6  ⁱI hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go;

my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.

7  “Let my enemy be as the wicked,

and let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.

8  For what is the ^jhope of the godless when God ^kcuts him off,

when God takes away his life?

9  Will God hear his cry

when distress comes upon him?

10  Will he ^ltake delight in the Almighty?

Will he call upon God at all times?

11  I will teach you concerning the hand of God;

what is with the Almighty I will not conceal.

12  Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves;

why then have you become altogether vain?

13  “This is ^mthe portion of a wicked man with God,

and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty:

14  If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword,

and his descendants have not enough bread.

15  Those who survive him the pestilence buries,

and his ⁿwidows do not weep.

16  Though he ^oheap up silver like dust,

and pile up clothing like clay,

17  he may pile it up, ^pbut the righteous will wear it,

and the innocent will divide the silver.

18  He builds his ^qhouse like a moth’s,

like a booth that a watchman makes.

19  ^rHe goes to bed rich, but will do so no more;

he opens his eyes, and his wealth is gone.

20  Terrors overtake him like a flood;

in the night a whirlwind carries him off.

21  The east wind lifts him up and he is ^sgone;

it sweeps him out of his place.

22  It¹⁵ hurls at him without pity;

he flees from its¹⁶ power in headlong flight.

23  It ^tclaps its hands at him

and hisses at him from its place.

1  “Surely there is a mine for silver,

and a place for gold that they refine.

2  Iron is taken out of the earth,

and copper is smelted from the ore.

3  Man puts an end to darkness

and searches out to the farthest limit

the ore in gloom and deep darkness.

4  He opens shafts in a valley away from where anyone lives;

they are forgotten by travelers;

they hang in the air, far away from mankind; they swing to and fro.

5  As for the earth, out of it comes bread,

but underneath it is turned up as by fire.

6  Its stones are the place of sapphires,¹⁷

and it has dust of gold.

7  “That path no bird of prey knows,

and the falcon’s eye has not seen it.

8  The proud beasts have not trodden it;

the lion has not passed over it.

9  “Man puts his hand to the flinty rock

and overturns mountains by the roots.

10  He cuts out channels in the rocks,

and his eye sees every precious thing.

11  He dams up the streams so that they do not trickle,

and the thing that is hidden he brings out to light.

12  “But ^uwhere shall wisdom be found?

And where is the place of understanding?

13  Man does not know its worth,

and it is not found in the land of the living.

14  The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’

and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’

15  It cannot be bought for ^vgold,

and silver cannot be weighed as its price.

16  It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,

in precious onyx or sapphire.

17  Gold and glass cannot equal it,

nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.

18  No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal;

the price of wisdom is above pearls.

19  The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it,

nor can it be valued in pure gold.

20  “From where, then, does wisdom come?

And where is the place of understanding?

21  It is hidden from the eyes of all living

and concealed from the birds of the air.

22  Abaddon and Death say,

‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’

23  ^w“God understands the way to it,

and he knows its place.

24  For ^xhe looks to the ends of the earth

and sees everything under the heavens.

25  When ^yhe gave to the wind its weight

and apportioned the waters by measure,

26  when he made a ^zdecree for the rain

and a ^away for the lightning of the thunder,

27  then he saw it and declared it;

he established it, and searched it out.

28  And he said to man,

‘Behold, ^bthe fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,

and to ^cturn away from evil is understanding.’”

2  “Oh, that I were as in the months of old,

as in the days when God watched over me,

3  when ^ehis lamp shone upon my head,

and by his light I walked through darkness,

4  as I was in my prime,¹⁸

when the ^ffriendship of God was upon my tent,

5  when the Almighty was yet with me,

when my ^gchildren were all around me,

6  when my steps were washed with ^hbutter,

and the rock poured out for me ⁱstreams of oil!

7  When I went out to the gate of the city,

when I prepared my seat in the square,

8  the young men saw me and withdrew,

and the aged rose and stood;

9  the princes refrained from talking

and ^jlaid their hand on their mouth;

10  the voice of the nobles was hushed,

and their ^ktongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.

11  When the ear heard, it called me blessed,

and when the eye saw, it approved,

12  ^lbecause I delivered the poor who cried for help,

and the ^mfatherless who had none to help him.

13  The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me,

and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

14  ⁿI ^oput on righteousness, and it clothed me;

my justice was like a robe and a turban.

15  I was eyes to the blind

and feet to the lame.

16  I was a father to the needy,

and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know.

17  I ^pbroke the ^qfangs of the unrighteous

and made him drop his prey from his teeth.

18  Then I thought, ‘I shall die in my nest,

and I shall multiply my days ^ras the sand,

19  my roots spread out to the waters,

with the dew all night on my branches,

20  my glory fresh with me,

and my bow ever new in my hand.’

21  “Men listened to me and waited

and kept silence for my counsel.

22  After I spoke they did not speak again,

and my word dropped upon them.

23  They waited for me as for the rain,

and they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.

24  I smiled on them when they had no confidence,

and the ^slight of my face they did not cast down.

25  I chose their way and sat as chief,

and I lived ^tlike a king among his troops,

like one who comforts mourners.

1  ^u“But now they laugh at me,

men who are ^vyounger than I,

whose fathers I would have disdained

to set with the dogs of my flock.

2  What could I gain from the strength of their hands,

men whose vigor is gone?