“Let the day on which I was born perish,
And the night which announced: ‘There is a man-child conceived.’

“You will come to your grave in old age,
Like the stacking of grain [on the threshing floor] in its season.

“My brothers have acted deceitfully like a brook,
Like the torrents of brooks that vanish,

“As a slave earnestly longs for the shade,
And as a hired man eagerly awaits his wages,

“If I have sinned, what [harm] have I done to You,
O Watcher of mankind?
Why have You set me as a target for You,
So that I am a burden to myself?

“How long will you say these things?
And will the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?

For his confidence is fragile and breaks,
And his trust is [like] a spider’s web.

The [sunless] land of utter gloom as darkness itself,
[The land] of the shadow of death, without order,
And [where] it shines as [thick] darkness.”

“His wisdom is as high as the heights of heaven. What can you do?
It is deeper than Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead). What can you know?

“I am a joke to my friends;
I, one whom God answered when he called upon Him—
A just and blameless man is a joke [and laughed to scorn].

“He who is at ease has contempt for misfortune,
But misfortune is ready [and anxiously waiting] for those whose feet slip.

While I waste away like a rotten thing,
Like a garment that is moth-eaten.

“But as a mountain, if it falls, crumbles into nothing,
And as the rock is moved from its place,

“You have taken a firm hold on me and have shriveled me up,
It has become a witness [against me];
And my leanness [and infirmity] rises up [as evidence] against me,
It testifies to my face [about my guilt].

“I have sewed sackcloth over my skin [as a sign of mourning]
And have defiled my horn (symbol of strength) in the dust.

“Oh, that a man would mediate and plead with God [for me]
Just as a man [mediates and pleads] with his neighbor and friend.

“Those who live [temporarily] in my house and my maids consider me a stranger;
I am a foreigner in their sight.

Whom I, even I, will see for myself,
And my eyes will see Him and not another!
My heart faints within me.

“Then beware and be afraid of the sword [of divine vengeance] for yourselves,
For wrathful are the punishments of that sword,
So that you may know there is judgment.”

“He flies away like a dream and cannot be found;
Yes, he is chased away like a vision of the night.

“When you are cast down and humbled, you will speak with confidence,
And the humble person He will lift up and save.

“The murderer rises at dawn;
He kills the poor and the needy,
And at night he becomes a thief.

How much less man, that maggot,
And the son of man, that worm!”

“Surely there is a mine for silver,
And a place where they refine gold.

“Terrors are turned upon me;
They chase away my honor and reputation like the wind,
And my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.

“For adultery is a heinous and lustful crime;
Moreover, it would be a sin punishable by the judges.

“For it is a fire which consumes to Abaddon (destruction, ruin, final torment);
And [illicit passion] would burn and rage and uproot all my [life’s] increase [destroying everything].

(But from my youth the orphan grew up with me as with a father,
And from my mother’s womb I have been the widow’s guide),

If I beheld the sun [as an object of worship] when it shone
Or the moon going in its splendor,

“Surely I would [proudly] bear it on my shoulder,
And bind the scroll around my head like a crown.

“I would count out to Him the number of my steps [with every detail of my life],
Approaching His presence as if I were a prince.

“But there is [a vital force and] a spirit [of intelligence] in man,
And the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.

“My belly is like unvented wine;
Like new wineskins it is about to burst.

“Behold, God is exalted in His power;
Who is a ruler or a teacher like Him?

“Can you, with Him, spread out the sky,
Strong as a molten mirror?

“His heart is as hard as a stone,
Indeed, as solid as a lower millstone.