But put forth thy hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce thee to thy face.

For now should I have lain down and been quiet; I should have slept; then had I been at rest,

Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, As infants that never saw light.

For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas: Therefore have my words been rash.

And be it still my consolation, Yea, let me exult in pain that spareth not, That I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

But his flesh upon him hath pain, And his soul within him mourneth.

The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, Even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, And I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

That with an iron pen and lead They were graven in the rock for ever!

Thou hast sent widows away empty, And the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

If my heart hath been enticed unto a woman, And I have laid wait at my neighbor's door;

If his loins have not blessed me, And if he hath not been warmed with the fleece of my sheep;

Then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder-blade, And mine arm be broken from the bone.

And my heart hath been secretly enticed, And my mouth hath kissed my hand:

If the men of my tent have not said, Who can find one that hath not been filled with his meat?

He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, And with continual strife in his bones;

Have the gates of death been revealed unto thee? Or hast thou seen the gates of the shadow of death?

Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him concerning all the evil that Jehovah had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one a ring of gold.