“Now a word was brought to me stealthily,
And my ear received a whisper of it.

‘Why then have You brought me out of the womb?
Would that I had died and no eye had seen me!

And show you the secrets of wisdom!
For sound wisdom has two sides.
Know then that God forgets a part of your iniquity.

“Were you the first man to be born,
Or were you brought forth before the hills?

“But He has made me a byword of the people,
And I am one at whom men spit.

“To the weary you have given no water to drink,
And from the hungry you have withheld bread.

“Behold, as wild donkeys in the wilderness
They go forth seeking food in their activity,
As bread for their children in the desert.

“They are exalted a little while, then they are gone;
Moreover, they are brought low and like everything gathered up;
Even like the heads of grain they are cut off.

“Though his sons are many, they are destined for the sword;
And his descendants will not be satisfied with bread.

“The path no bird of prey knows,
Nor has the falcon’s eye caught sight of it.

“The proud beasts have not trodden it,
Nor has the fierce lion passed over it.

“And now I have become their taunt,
I have even become a byword to them.

“On the right hand their brood arises;
They thrust aside my feet and build up against me their ways of destruction.

That He may turn man aside from his conduct,
And keep man from pride;

So that his life loathes bread,
And his soul favorite food.

“There they cry out, but He does not answer
Because of the pride of evil men.

“Then indeed, He enticed you from the mouth of distress,
Instead of it, a broad place with no constraint;
And that which was set on your table was full of fatness.

“Now men do not see the light which is bright in the skies;
But the wind has passed and cleared them.

And I said, ‘Thus far you shall come, but no farther;
And here shall your proud waves stop’?

“Pour out the overflowings of your anger,
And look on everyone who is proud, and make him low.

“Look on everyone who is proud, and humble him,
And tread down the wicked where they stand.

“Will you play with him as with a bird,
Or will you bind him for your maidens?

“His strong scales are his pride,
Shut up as with a tight seal.

“He looks on everything that is high;
He is king over all the sons of pride.”

Then all his brothers and all his sisters and all who had known him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversities that the Lord had brought on him. And each one gave him one piece of money, and each a ring of gold.