His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.

Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?

To reason with a word not useful? And speeches -- no profit in them?

Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God.

“For your guilt teaches your mouth,
And you choose [to speak] the language of the crafty and cunning.

Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee.

Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before the hills?

“Do you hear the secret counsel of God,
And do you limit [the possession of] wisdom to yourself?

What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us?

With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder than thy father.

Are the consolations of God small with thee? is there any secret thing with thee?

Why doth thine heart carry thee away? and what do thy eyes wink at,

That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth?

What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.

How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?

I will shew thee, hear me; and that which I have seen I will declare;

Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it:

To them alone was the land given, And a stranger passed not over into their midst:

The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.

A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

He does not believe in a return from darkness, but he is awaited by the sword.

He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

He runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers:

Because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on his flanks.

And he dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps.

He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches, and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.

Let him not trust in a worthless speech. He leads only himself astray, for emptiness will be his reward.

“It will be fulfilled while he still lives,
And his branch will not be green [but shall wither away].

He shall shake off his unripe grapes as a vine, and shall cast his flower as an olive.

For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.

Conceiving mischief, and bringing forth iniquity, yea, their inmost soul, prepareth deceit.

I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.

“Is there no end to [your futile] words of wind?
Or what plagues you [so much] that you [so boldly] answer [me like this]?

I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.

But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief.

Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased?

“But now God has exhausted me.
You [O Lord] have destroyed all my family and my household.

And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.

He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.

Their mouths are open wide against me; the blows of his bitter words are falling on my face; all of them come together in a mass against me.

I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.

He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.

I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.

My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.

O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.

Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.

My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.

O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!

When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.

My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.

Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?

Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?

For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.

He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.

He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.

Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.

Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.

The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.

But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.

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

They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.

If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.

I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.

And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?

They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.

How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? mark, and afterwards we will speak.

Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your sight?

(He is tearing himself in his anger.) For thy sake is earth forsaken? And removed is a rock from its place?

Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.

The light, hath darkened in his tent, Yea, his lamp above him, goeth out;

For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.

The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him.

The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.

His strength shall be hungerbitten, and destruction shall be ready at his side.

It shall devour the strength of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength.

His confidence shall be rooted out of his tent, and it shall lead him away to the king of terrors:

It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.

His roots dry up {below}, and its branches wither away above.

His remembrance perishes from [the] earth, and [there is] not a name for him on [the] street.

He is sent away from the light into the dark; he is forced out of the world.

[There is] no offspring for him nor a descendant among his people, and there is not a survivor in his abode.

They that come after him shall be astonied at his day, as they that went before were affrighted.

Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.

How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?

These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.

And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.

If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:

then understand that it is God who has wronged me
and caught me in His net.

Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.

He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.

He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.

He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.

He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.

His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.

He has taken my brothers far away from me; they have seen my fate and have become strange to me.

My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me.

They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.