While he was still speaking, another [messenger] also came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three bands and made a raid on the camels and have taken them away and have killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

He said,

“Naked (without possessions) I came [into this world] from my mother’s womb,
And naked I will return there.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

“As for that night, let darkness seize it;
Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
Let it not be counted in the number of the months.

“Behold, let that night be barren [and empty];
Let no joyful voice enter it.

“The paths of their course wind along,
They go up into nothing and perish.
[Your counsel is as helpful to me as a dry streambed in the heat of summer.]

“If your children have sinned against Him,
Then He has handed them over to the power of their transgression and punished them.

“If he is snatched from his place [in the garden],
Then his place will forget him, saying, ‘I have never seen you.’

“The earth is given into the hands of the wicked;
He covers the faces of its judges [so that they are blind to justice].
If it is not He, then who is it [that is responsible for all this injustice]?

You would still plunge me into the pit,
And my own clothes would hate me [and refuse to cover my foul body].

‘Remember now, that You have made me as clay;
So will You turn me into dust again?

“If God passes by or arrests,
Or calls an assembly [of judgment], who can restrain Him?
[If He is against a man, who can call Him to account for it?]

“He uncovers mysteries [that are difficult to grasp and understand] out of the darkness
And brings black gloom and the shadow of death into light.

“You also open Your eyes upon him
And bring him into judgment with Yourself.

“God hands me over to criminals
And tosses me [headlong] into the hands of the wicked.

“These [thoughts try to] make the night into the day;
‘The light is near,’ they say in the presence of darkness [but they pervert the truth].

“For the wicked is thrown into a net by his own feet (wickedness),
And he steps on the webbing [of the lattice-covered pit].

“He is driven and propelled from light into darkness,
And chased from the inhabited world.

“The produce and increase of his house will depart [with the victors];
His possessions will be dragged away in the day of God’s wrath.

“Is it because of your fear of Him that He corrects you,
That He enters into judgment against you?

“They are insignificant on the surface of the water;
Their portion is cursed on the earth;
They do not turn toward the vineyards.

“He breaks open (mine) shafts far away from where people live,
[In places] forgotten by the [human] foot;
They dangle [in the mines] and hang away from men.

“Man dams up the streams from flowing [so that they do not trickle into the mine],
And what is hidden he brings out to the light.

“They are gaunt with want and famine;
They gnaw the dry and barren ground by night in [the gloom of] waste and desolation.

“God has cast me into the mire [a swampland of crisis],
And I have become [worthless] like dust and ashes.

“Therefore my lyre (harp) is used for [the sound of] mourning,
And my flute for the [sound of the] voices of those who weep.

Then the angel is gracious to him, and says,
‘Spare him from going down to the pit [of destruction];
I have found a ransom [a consideration, or reason for redemption, an atonement]!’

“Then indeed, He enticed you from the mouth of distress and confinement,
Into a broad place where there is no constraint or distress;
And that which was set on your table was full of fatness (rich food).

“Do not let wrath entice you into scoffing;
And do not let the greatness and the extent of the ransom turn you aside.

“Then the beast goes into its lair
And remains in its hiding place.

“The earth is changed like clay into which a seal is pressed;
And the things [of the earth] stand out like a [multi-colored] garment.

When the dust hardens into a mass
And the clods stick together [because of the heat]?

“Can you put a rope [made] of rushes into his nose
Or pierce his jaw through with a hook?