The sojourners in my house and my slave women count me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their eyes.

“I call to my servant, but he does not answer;
I have to implore him with my mouth.

Even youngsters have scorned me; when I get up, they scoff at me.

All my close friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved have turned against me.

My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O you my friends; for the hand of God has touched me.

That -- I have known my Redeemer, The Living and the Last, For the dust he doth rise.

Whom, I myself, shall see, on my side, and, mine own eyes, shall have looked upon, and not those of a stranger. Exhausted are my deepest desires in my bosom!

I have heard the rebuke of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causes me to answer.

"Haven't you known this from ancient times, since mankind was placed on the earth?

Yet he shall perish forever like his own refuse: they who have seen him shall say, Where is he?

His bones have been full of his youth, And with him on the dust it lieth down.

But he shall labour, and yet have nothing to eat. Great travail shall he make for riches, but he shall not enjoy them.

"For though the wicked have never so much to fill his belly, yet God shall send his wrath upon him, and cause his indignation to rain over him:

If he have fled from the iron weapon, the bow of brass shall strike him through.

This is the portion that the wicked shall have of God, and the heritage that he may look for of the LORD."

Bear with me that I may speak; and after that I have spoken, mock on.

Yea, if I have remembered, then I have been troubled. And my flesh hath taken fright.

Wherefore do the wicked live? They have become old, Yea, they have been mighty in wealth.

They send out their young ones like a flock, and their children have pleasure in the dance,

They bear with them tabrets and harps, and have instruments of music at their pleasure.

"They say to God, "Turn away from us! We have no desire to know your ways.

What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?

Lo, there is utterly no goodness in them, therefore will not I have to do with the counsel of the ungodly.

"How often do the wicked have their lights put out? Does calamity ever fall on them? Will God in his anger ever apportion their destruction?

You say, God keeps punishment stored up for his children. Let him send it on the man himself, so that he may have the punishment of it!

For what pleasure should he have in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?

His breasts have been full of milk, And marrow his bones doth moisten.

And this one dieth with a bitter soul, And have not eaten with gladness.

Lo, I have known your thoughts, And the devices against me ye do wrongfully.

Have you not asked them that go by the way? and do you not know their evidences,

Sweet to him have been the clods of the valley, And after him every man he draweth, And before him there is no numbering.

For you have taken a pledge from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing.

You have not given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.

You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

But you have said, 'What does God know? Does he judge through such deep darkness?

Have you marked the old way which wicked men have trodden?

Who have been cut down unexpectedly, A flood is poured out on their foundation.

Yea, the Almighty shall be your defense, and you shall have plenty of silver.

For then shall you have your delight in the Almighty, and shall lift up your face unto God.

And thou shalt decree a purpose, and it shall be fulfilled unto thee, and, upon thy ways, shall have shone a light;

For they have humiliated you, and you shall say, Pride! And He shall save the lowly of eyes.

I would see what his answers would be, and have knowledge of what he would say to me.

Yet He knows the way I have taken;
when He has tested me, I will emerge as pure gold.

My foot has held fast to his steps, his way have I kept, and not turned aside.

Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.

Indeed, I have not been silenced {because of darkness}, and because of me he conceals thick darkness.

Wherefore, since from the Almighty times are not hid, have, his knowing ones, no vision of his days?

The borders they reach, A drove they have taken violently away, Yea, they do evil.

They turn aside the needy from the way, Together have hid the poor of the earth.

Lo, wild asses in a wilderness, They have gone out about their work, Seeking early for prey, A mixture for himself -- food for young ones.

They get mixed grain from the field, and they take away the late fruit from the vines of those who have wealth.

They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the cold.

So that when the showers in the mountains have rained upon them, and they be all wet, they have none other succour, but to embrace the rock for want of a covering.

Naked, they have gone without clothing, And hungry -- have taken away a sheaf.

Between their walls they make oil, Wine-presses they have trodden, and thirst.

They, have become rebels against the light, - they are not acquainted with the ways thereof, neither abide they in the paths thereof.

He hath dug in the darkness -- houses; By day they shut themselves up, They have not known light.

Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so does the grave those who have sinned.

[He] feeds on [the] barren, [who] does not have a child, and does no good to [the] widow.

Yet God drags away the mighty by His power;
when He rises up, they have no assurance of life.

High they were for a little, and they are not, And they have been brought low. As all others they are shut up, And as the head of an ear of corn cut off.

Lo -- unto the moon, and it shineth not, And stars have not been pure in His eyes.

How have you helped him that is without power? how save you the arm that has no strength?

How have you counseled him that has no wisdom? and how have you plentifully declared the thing as it is?

To whom have you uttered words? and whose spirit came from you?

He clears the skies with his wind; his hands have pierced the fleeing serpent.

On my righteousness, have I taken fast hold, and will not give it up, My heart shall not reproach any of my days.

For what hope does the godless man have when he is cut off,
when God takes away his life?

"I will teach you in the name of God: and the thing that I have of the Almighty, will I not keep from you.

Behold, all you yourselves have seen it; why then are you thus altogether vain?

saying, 'This is that portion that the wicked shall have of God, and the heritage that Tyrants shall receive of the Almighty'?

If their children multiply, [it is] for [the] sword, and his offspring {do not have enough to eat}.

Look, whom he leaveth behind him, they shall die and be buried, and no man shall have pity of his widows.

Though he have as much money as the dust of the earth, and raiment as ready as the clay,

The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant: even the waters forgotten by the foot: they are dried up, they have gone away from men.

a place where birds of prey never fly, and the eyes of the falcon have never seen.

Nor trodden it have the sons of pride, Not passed over it hath the fierce lion.

He has cut out channels through the rocks; his eyes have spotted every precious thing.

The ocean depths say, “It’s not in me,”
while the sea declares, “I don’t have it.”

Destruction and death have said: 'With our ears we have heard its fame.'

As I have been in days of my maturity, And the counsel of God upon my tent.

Seen me have youths, and they, been hidden, And the aged have risen -- they stood up.

Princes have kept in words, And a hand they place on their mouth.

He that should have been lost, gave me a good word, and the widow's heart praised me.

Righteousness I have put on, and it clotheth me, As a robe and a diadem my justice.

Eyes I have been to the blind, And feet to the lame am I.

A father I am to the needy, And the cause I have not known I search out.

"Therefore, I thought verily that I should have died in my nest: and that my days should have been as many as the sands of the sea.

My roots will have access to water,
and the dew will rest on my branches all night.

To me they have hearkened, Yea, they wait, and are silent for my counsel.

If I had spoken, they would have it none other ways, my words were so well taken among them.

And they wait as for rain for me, And their mouth they have opened wide As for the latter rain.

And now, laughed at me, Have the younger in days than I, Whose fathers I have loathed to set With the dogs of my flock.

Furthermore, what could I have gained from men whose strength is gone?

They have to get a resting-place in the hollows of the valleys, in holes of the earth and rocks.

Sons of folly -- even sons without name, They have been smitten from the land.

And now, their song I have been, And I am to them for a byword.

They have abominated me, They have kept far from me, And from before me have not spared to spit.

Because His cord He loosed and afflicteth me, And the bridle from before me, They have cast away.