A spirit glided past me and made the hair on my skin to bristle.

At destruction and at hunger thou mockest, And of the beast of the earth, Thou art not afraid.

(For with sons of the field is thy covenant, And the beast of the field Hath been at peace with thee.)

Am I a sea, or a sea-beast, that you put a watch over me?

"Please inquire of past generations. Find out about the learning of their fathers.

Which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number.

See, he goes past me and I see him not: he goes on before, but I have no knowledge of him.

Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good.

Life and lovingkindness, thou didst bestow upon me, - and, thy watchful care, preserved my breath.

For you yourself will forget your misery; you will remember [it] as water [that] has flowed past.

If his days are ordered, and you have knowledge of the number of his months, having given him a fixed limit past which he may not go;

O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!

“For when a few years are past,
I shall go the way of no return.

My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.

All of my best friends despise me,
and those I love have turned against me.

One dieth now when he is mighty and at his best, rich and in prosperity;

Gold and glass are not equal to it in price, and it may not be exchanged for jewels of the best gold.

The topaz of Ethiopia is not equal to it, and it may not be valued with the best gold.

Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;

The power and strength of their hands might do me no good, and as for their age, it is spent and past away without any profit.

In times past thou didst set me up on high, as it were above the wind, but now hast thou given me a very sore fall.

If I made gold my hope, or if I ever said to the best gold, I have put my faith in you;

He breaketh in pieces mighty men in ways past finding out, And setteth others in their stead.

Lo, GOD, is greater than we can know, The number of his years, even past finding out!

And the wild beast goeth into its lair, and they remain in their dens.

Who has let the ass of the fields go free? or made loose the bands of the loud-voiced beast?

And forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them.

See now the Great Beast, whom I made, even as I made you; he takes grass for food, like the ox.

“No one is so fierce [and foolhardy] that he dares to stir up Leviathan;
Who then is he who can stand before Me [or dares to contend with Me, the beast’s creator]?

“He looks on everything that is high [without terror];
He is monarch over all the sons of pride. [And now, Job, who are you who does not dare to disturb the beast, yet who dares resist Me, the beast’s creator? Everything under the heavens is Mine; therefore, who can have a claim against God?]”