and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young men, and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you."

Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan.

There the wicked cease from troubling. There the weary are at rest.

There the prisoners are at ease together. They don't hear the voice of the taskmaster.

The small and the great are there. The servant is free from his master.

who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?

For my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out like water.

But now it is come to you, and you faint. It touches you, and you are troubled.

By the breath of God they perish. By the blast of his anger are they consumed.

The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken.

The old lion perishes for lack of prey. The cubs of the lioness are scattered abroad.

How much more, those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth!

Between morning and evening they are destroyed. They perish forever without any regarding it.

His children are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver them,

so that he sets up on high those who are low, those who mourn are exalted to safety.

For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.

My soul refuses to touch them. They are as loathsome food to me.

Which are black by reason of the ice, in which the snow hides itself.

In the dry season, they vanish. When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.

For now you are nothing. You see a terror, and are afraid.

How forcible are words of uprightness! But your reproof, what does it reprove?

Do you intend to reprove words, since the speeches of one who is desperate are as wind?

"Isn't a man forced to labor on earth? Aren't his days like the days of a hired hand?

so am I made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me.

My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope.

I loathe my life. I don't want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.)

So are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the godless man shall perish,

His roots are wrapped around the rock pile. He sees the place of stones.

Behold, he snatches away. Who can hinder him? Who will ask him, 'What are you doing?'

"Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away, they see no good,

Are your days as the days of mortals, or your years as man's years,

You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me.

Aren't my days few? Cease then. Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort,

They are high as heaven. What can you do? They are deeper than Sheol. What can you know?

for you shall forget your misery. You shall remember it as waters that are passed away.

"No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.

The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their God in their hands.

With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his.

He removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the elders.

But you are forgers of lies. You are all physicians of no value.

Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, Your defenses are defenses of clay.

How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my disobedience and my sin.

Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his bounds that he can't pass;

so man lies down and doesn't rise. Until the heavens are no more, they shall not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.

His sons come to honor, and he doesn't know it. They are brought low, but he doesn't perceive it of them.

"Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills?

With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much elder than your father.

Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you?

Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;

the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

"I have heard many such things. You are all miserable comforters!

For when a few years are come, I shall go the way of no return.

"My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct, And the grave is ready for me.

Surely there are mockers with me. My eye dwells on their provocation.

My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.

My days are past, my plans are broken off, as are the thoughts of my heart.

If I have said to corruption, 'You are my father;' to the worm, 'My mother,' and 'my sister;'

Why are we counted as animals, which have become unclean in your sight?

Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous. This is the place of him who doesn't know God."

You have reproached me ten times. You aren't ashamed that you attack me.

"He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.

Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

His bones are full of his youth, but youth shall lie down with him in the dust.

He draws it forth, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him.

Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.

How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind, as chaff that the storm carries away?

"Shall any teach God knowledge, since he judges those who are high?

His pails are full of milk. The marrow of his bones is moistened.

that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity, That they are led forth to the day of wrath?

Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that you are righteous? Or does it benefit him, that you make your ways perfect?

Therefore snares are around you. Sudden fear troubles you,

"Isn't God in the heights of heaven? See the height of the stars, how high they are!

Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn't see. He walks on the vault of the sky.'

The righteous see it, and are glad. The innocent ridicule them,

saying, 'Surely those who rose up against us are cut off. The fire has consumed the remnant of them.'

For he performs that which is appointed for me. Many such things are with him.

"Why aren't times laid up by the Almighty? Why don't those who know him see his days?

There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them.

They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter.

There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor,

"These are of those who rebel against the light. They don't know its ways, nor stay in its paths.

"They are foam on the surface of the waters. Their portion is cursed in the earth. They don't turn into the way of the vineyards.

God gives them security, and they rest in it. His eyes are on their ways.

They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone. Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.

"Dominion and fear are with him. He makes peace in his high places.

Behold, even the moon has no brightness, and the stars are not pure in his sight;

"Those who are deceased tremble, those beneath the waters and all that live in them.

The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his rebuke.

By his Spirit the heavens are garnished. His hand has pierced the swift serpent.

Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways. How small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?"

If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

He breaks open a shaft away from where people live. They are forgotten by the foot. They hang far from men, they swing back and forth.

"But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.

They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.

They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom are their food.

They are driven out from the midst of men. They cry after them as after a thief;

Among the bushes they bray; and under the nettles they are gathered together.

They are children of fools, yes, children of base men. They were flogged out of the land.

In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.