“Behold, God will not reject a man of integrity,
Nor will He strengthen or support evildoers.

“But I wish to speak to the Almighty,
And I desire to argue with God.

“Behold now, I have prepared my case;
I know that I will be vindicated.

“He will fail to bring his grapes to maturity [leaving them to wither unnourished] on the vine,
And will cast off blossoms [and fail to bring forth fruit] like the olive tree.

“God hands me over to criminals
And tosses me [headlong] into the hands of the wicked.

“For the wicked is thrown into a net by his own feet (wickedness),
And he steps on the webbing [of the lattice-covered pit].

“His troops come together
And build up their way and siege works against me
And camp around my tent.

“He swallows [his ill-gotten] riches,
But will vomit them up;
God will drive them out of his belly.

“When he fills his belly,
God will send His fierce anger on him
And will rain it upon him while he is eating.

“I smiled at them when they did not believe,
And they did not diminish the light of my face.

“For God has loosed His bowstring [attacking me] and [He has] afflicted and humbled me;
They have cast off the bridle [of restraint] before me.

“On my right the [rabble] brood rises;
They push my feet away, and they build up their ways of destruction against me [like an advancing army].

“God has cast me into the mire [a swampland of crisis],
And I have become [worthless] like dust and ashes.

“Tell us [Job] what words [of man] shall we say to such a Being;
We cannot state our case because of darkness [that is, our ignorance in the presence of the unsearchable God].

“They kneel down, they bring forth their young,
They cast out their labor pains.

“Behold, his [assailant’s] hope and expectation [of defeating Leviathan] is false;
Will not one be overwhelmed even at the sight of him?

“Let us break apart their [divine] bands [of restraint]
And cast away their cords [of control] from us.”

Hold them guilty, O God;
Let them fall by their own designs and councils!
Cast them out because of the abundance of their transgressions,
For they are mutinous and have rebelled against You.

They track us down and have now surrounded us in our steps;
They set their eyes to force us to the ground,

Arise, O Lord, confront him, cast him down;
Save my soul from the wicked with Your sword,

I was cast upon You from birth;
From my mother’s womb You have been my God.

They divide my clothing among them
And cast lots for my garment.

Do not hide Your face from me,
Do not turn Your servant away in anger;
You have been my help;
Do not abandon me nor leave me,
O God of my salvation!

The wicked have drawn the sword and bent their bow
To cast down the afflicted and the needy,
To slaughter those who are upright in conduct [those with personal integrity and godly character].

When he falls, he will not be hurled down,
Because the Lord is the One who holds his hand and sustains him.

Why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become restless and disturbed within me?
Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall again praise Him
For the help of His presence.

O my God, my soul is in despair within me [the burden more than I can bear];
Therefore I will [fervently] remember You from the land of the Jordan
And the peaks of [Mount] Hermon, from Mount Mizar.

Why are you in despair, O my soul?
Why have you become restless and disquieted within me?
Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God.

For You are the God of my strength [my stronghold—in whom I take refuge]; why have You rejected me?
Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

Why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why are you restless and disturbed within me?
Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall again praise Him,
The help of my [sad] countenance and my God.

But now You have rejected us and brought us to dishonor,
And You do not go out with our armies [to lead us to victory].

Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord?
Awaken, do not reject us forever.

“For you hate instruction and discipline
And cast My words behind you [discarding them].

Do not cast me away from Your presence
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

Because of the voice of the enemy,
Because of the pressure of the wicked;
For they bring down trouble on me,
And in anger they persecute me.

Cast your burden on the Lord [release it] and He will sustain and uphold you;
He will never allow the righteous to be shaken (slip, fall, fail).

O God, You have rejected us and cast us off. You have broken [down our defenses and scattered] us;
You have been angry; O restore us and turn again to us.

“Moab is My washbowl;
Over Edom I shall throw My shoe [in triumph];
Over Philistia I raise the shout [of victory].”

They consult only to throw him down from his high position [to dishonor him];
They delight in lies.
They bless with [the words of] their mouths,
But inwardly they curse. Selah.

Sing to God, sing praises to His name;
Lift up a song for Him who rides through the desert—
His name is the Lord—be in good spirits before Him.

Do not cast me off nor send me away in the time of old age;
Do not abandon me when my strength fails and I am weak.

Surely You set the wicked-minded and immoral on slippery places;
You cast them down to destruction.

O God, why have You rejected us forever?
Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture?

At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob,
Both rider and horse were cast into a dead sleep [of death].

Will the Lord reject forever?
And will He never be favorable again?

Cast away [from the living] and abandoned among the dead,
Like the slain who lie in a [nameless] grave,
Whom You no longer remember,
And they are cut off from Your hand.

O Lord, why do You reject me?
Why do You hide Your face from me?

But [in apparent contradiction of all this] You [the faithful Lord] have cast off and rejected;
You have been full of wrath against Your anointed.

For the Lord will not abandon His people,
Nor will He abandon His inheritance.

Because of Your indignation and Your wrath,
For You have lifted me up and thrown me away.

And that He would cast out their descendants among the nations
And scatter them in the lands [of the earth].

“Moab is My washbowl;
Over Edom I will throw My shoe [to show Edom is Mine];
Over Philistia I will shout [in triumph].”

Have You not rejected us, O God?
And will You not go out, O God, with our armies?

“Let burning coals fall upon them;
Let them be thrown into the fire,
Into deep [water] pits from which they cannot rise.

Flash lightning and scatter my enemies;
Send out Your arrows and confuse and embarrass and frustrate them.

How blessed and favored are the people in such circumstance;
How blessed [fortunate, prosperous, and favored] are the people whose God is the Lord!

For she has cast down many [mortally] wounded;
Indeed, all who were killed by her were strong.

The lot is cast into the lap,
But its every decision is from the Lord.

The first one to plead his case seems right,
Until another comes and cross-examines him.

To cast lots puts an end to quarrels
And decides between powerful contenders.

The righteous one keeps an eye on the house of the wicked—
How the wicked are cast down to ruin.

A time to throw away stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing.

A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.

Cast your bread on the surface of the waters, [be diligently active, make thoughtful decisions], for you will find it after many days.

In that day men will throw away to the moles and to the bats
Their idols of silver and their idols of gold,
Which they made for themselves [as objects] to worship,

Therefore, as the tongue of fire consumes the stubble [from straw]
And the dry grass collapses into the flame,
So their root will become like rot and their blossom blow away like fine dust;
Because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts
And despised and discarded the word of the Holy One of Israel.

“And though a tenth [of the people] remain in the land,
It will again be subject to destruction [consumed and burned],
Like a massive terebinth tree or like an oak
Whose stump remains when it is chopped down.
The holy seed [the elect remnant] is its stump [the substance of Israel].”

“But you [king of Babylon] have been cast out of your tomb (denied burial)
Like a rejected branch,
Clothed with the slain who are pierced by the sword,
Who go down to the stones of the pit [into which carcasses are thrown],
Like a dead body trampled [underfoot].

For like wandering birds or scattered nestlings,
The daughters of Moab will be at the fords of the [river] Arnon.

The fishermen will lament (cry out in grief),
And all those who cast a hook into the Nile will mourn,
And those who spread nets upon the waters will languish.

And on this mountain He will destroy the covering that is [cast] over all peoples,
And the veil [of death] that is woven and spread over all the nations.

Your dead will live;
Their dead bodies will rise.
You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy!
For your dew is a dew of [celestial] light [heavenly, supernatural],
And the earth will give birth to the spirits of the dead.

Listen carefully, the Lord has a strong and mighty agent [the Assyrian];
Like a tempest of hail, a disastrous storm,
Like a tempest of mighty overflowing waters,
He has cast it down to the earth with His hand.

When he has leveled its surface,
Does he not sow [the seed of] dill and scatter cumin,
And plant wheat in rows,
And barley in its [intended] place and rye within its border?

And you will defile your carved images overlaid with silver, and your cast images plated with gold. You will scatter them like a bloodstained cloth, and will say to them, “Be gone!”

For in that day every man will reject and throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold [in disgust], which your own hands have sinfully made for you.

Blessed (happy, fortunate) are you who cast your seed upon all waters [when the river overflows its banks and irrigates the land],
You who allow the ox and the donkey to roam freely.

So their slain will be thrown out,
And the stench of their corpses will rise,
And the mountains will flow with their blood.

The Lord has cast the lot for them,
And His hand has divided and apportioned Edom to the wild beasts by measuring-line.
They will possess it forever;
From generation to generation they will dwell in it.

and have cast the gods [of those peoples] into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they have destroyed them.

“Therefore, the Lord says this concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come into this city or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with shield, or raise an assault ramp against it.

“Indeed, it was for my own well-being that I had such bitterness;
But You have loved back my life from the pit of nothingness (destruction),
For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

You whom I [the Lord] have taken from the ends of the earth,
And called from its remotest parts
And said to you, ‘You are My servant,
I have chosen you and have not rejected you [even though you are exiled].

“Present your case [for idols made by men’s hands],” says the Lord.
“Produce your evidence [of divinity],”
Says the king of Jacob.

“Remind Me [of your merits with a thorough report], let us plead and argue our case together;
State your position, that you may be proved right.

Who has made a god or cast an idol which is profitable for nothing?

And it will be said,
“Build up, build up, clear the way.
Remove the stumbling block out of the way [of the spiritual return] of My people.”

But the wicked are like the tossing sea,
For it cannot be quiet,
And its waters toss up mire and mud.

No one sues righteously [but for the sake of doing injury to others—to take some undue advantage], and no one pleads [his case] in truth; [but rather]
They trust in empty arguments and speak lies;
They conceive trouble and bring forth injustice.

Go through, go through the gates,
Clear the way for the people;
Build up, build up the highway,
Remove the stones, lift up a banner over the peoples.

Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble [with awe-filled reverence] at His word:
“Your brothers who hate you, who exclude you for My Name’s sake,
Have said, ‘Let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy.’
But they will be put to shame.

For the Lord of hosts has said,

“Cut down her trees
And build a siege [mound] against Jerusalem.
This is the city which must be punished;
There is nothing but oppression inside her [walls].

I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brothers (relatives through Jacob), all the descendants of Ephraim.

‘Cut off your hair [your crown, O Jerusalem] and throw it away,
And take up a mournful cry on the barren heights,
For the Lord has rejected and abandoned
The generation of His wrath.’

“For a sound of wailing is heard [coming] from Zion:
‘How we are ruined!
We are greatly perplexed and utterly shamed,
Because we have left the land,
Because they have torn down our dwellings.’”

You, O Lord are [uncompromisingly] righteous and consistently just when I plead my case with You;
Yet let me discuss issues of justice with You:
Why has the way of the wicked prospered?
Why are those who deal in treachery (deceit) at ease and thriving?

“I have abandoned My house,
I have given up My [precious] inheritance (Judah);
I have given the [dearly] beloved of My life
Into the hands of her enemies.

And the people to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and sword; and they will have no one to bury them—neither them, nor their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters. For I will pour out their [own] wickedness on them [and not only on the imposters posing as prophets, for the people could not have been deceived without their own consent].

Therefore I will hurl you out of this land [of Judah] into the land [of the Babylonians] which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no compassion.’

“For I will prepare and appoint destroyers [to execute My judgments] against you,
Each with his weapons;
And they will cut down your [palaces built of] choicest cedars
And throw them in the fire.