“I have seen the foolish taking root [and outwardly prospering],
But I cursed his dwelling immediately [for his destruction was certain].

“The caravans of Tema looked [for water],
The caravans of Sheba waited for them [in vain].

‘You renew Your witnesses against me
And increase Your indignation and anger toward me;
Hardship after hardship is with me [attacking me time after time].

“Since his days are determined,
The number of his months is with You [in Your control],
And You have made his limits so he cannot pass [his allotted time].

“[O God] turn your gaze from him so that he may rest,
Until he fulfills his day [on earth] like a hired man.

“Oh, that You would hide me in Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead),
That You would conceal me until Your wrath is past,
That You would set a definite time and then remember me [and in Your lovingkindness imprint me on your heart]!

“My eye has grown dim (unexpressive) because of grief,
And all my [body’s] members are [wasted away] like a shadow.

“Do you not know this from the old days,
Since the time that man was placed on the earth,

“In the fullness of his excess (great abundance) he will be in trouble;
The hand of everyone who suffers will come against him [he is miserable on every side].

“Will you keep to the ancient path
That wicked men walked [in the time of Noah],

Men who were snatched away before their time,
Whose foundations were poured out like a river?

“For I do not know how to flatter, [in an appropriate way, and I fear that],
My Maker would soon take me away.

“For He sets no appointed time for a man,
That he should appear before Him in judgment.

Which I have reserved for the time of trouble,
For the day of battle and war?

“Do you know the time when the wild goats of the rock give birth [to their young]?
Do you observe the calving of the deer?

“Can you count the months that they carry offspring,
Or do you know the time when they give birth?

“Who sent out the wild donkey free [from dependence on man]?
And who has loosed the bonds of the wild donkey [to survive in the wild],