“If I have despised the claim of my male or female slaves
When they filed a complaint against me,

And his anger burned against his three friends because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job.

Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they were years older than he.

“They are dismayed, they no longer answer;
Words have failed them.

“Shall I wait, because they do not speak,
Because they stop and no longer answer?

“In a dream, a vision of the night,
When sound sleep falls on men,
While they slumber in their beds,

Who shows no partiality to princes
Nor regards the rich above the poor,
For they all are the work of His hands?

“In a moment they die, and at midnight
People are shaken and pass away,
And the mighty are taken away without a hand.

“Therefore He knows their works,
And He overthrows them in the night,
And they are crushed.

Because they turned aside from following Him,
And had no regard for any of His ways;

So that they caused the cry of the poor to come to Him,
And that He might hear the cry of the afflicted—

“Look at the heavens and see;
And behold the clouds—they are higher than you.

“Because of the multitude of oppressions they cry out;
They cry for help because of the arm of the mighty.

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

“He does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous;
But with kings on the throne
He has seated them forever, and they are exalted.

“And if they are bound in fetters,
And are caught in the cords of affliction,

Then He declares to them their work
And their transgressions, that they have magnified themselves.

“He opens their ear to instruction,
And commands that they return from evil.

“If they hear and serve Him,
They will end their days in prosperity
And their years in pleasures.

“But if they do not hear, they shall perish by the sword
And they will die without knowledge.

“But the godless in heart lay up anger;
They do not cry for help when He binds them.

“They die in youth,
And their life perishes among the cult prostitutes.

“For He draws up the drops of water,
They distill rain from the mist,

Which the clouds pour down,
They drip upon man abundantly.

“It is changed like clay under the seal;
And they stand forth like a garment.

“Can you send forth lightnings that they may go
And say to you, ‘Here we are’?

When they crouch in their dens
And lie in wait in their lair?

“Can you count the months they fulfill,
Or do you know the time they give birth?

“They kneel down, they bring forth their young,
They get rid of their labor pains.

“Their offspring become strong, they grow up in the open field;
They leave and do not return to them.

“She treats her young cruelly, as if they were not hers;
Though her labor be in vain, she is unconcerned;

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

“Will the traders bargain over him?
Will they divide him among the merchants?

“They are joined one to another;
They clasp each other and cannot be separated.

“When he raises himself up, the mighty fear;
Because of the crashing they are bewildered.

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.

The wicked are not so,
But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.

There is nothing reliable in what they say;
Their inward part is destruction itself.
Their throat is an open grave;
They flatter with their tongue.

Hold them guilty, O God;
By their own devices let them fall!
In the multitude of their transgressions thrust them out,
For they are rebellious against You.

All my enemies will be ashamed and greatly dismayed;
They shall turn back, they will suddenly be ashamed.

When my enemies turn back,
They stumble and perish before You.

The nations have sunk down in the pit which they have made;
In the net which they hid, their own foot has been caught.

Put them in fear, O Lord;
Let the nations know that they are but men. Selah.

In pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted;
Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised.

For, behold, the wicked bend the bow,
They make ready their arrow upon the string
To shoot in darkness at the upright in heart.

They speak falsehood to one another;
With flattering lips and with a double heart they speak.

For the choir director. A Psalm of David.
The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds;
There is no one who does good.

They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt;
There is no one who does good, not even one.

Do all the workers of wickedness not know,
Who eat up my people as they eat bread,
And do not call upon the Lord?

There they are in great dread,
For God is with the righteous generation.

As for the saints who are in the earth,
They are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight.

They have closed their unfeeling heart,
With their mouth they speak proudly.

They have now surrounded us in our steps;
They set their eyes to cast us down to the ground.

From men with Your hand, O Lord,
From men of the world, whose portion is in this life,
And whose belly You fill with Your treasure;
They are satisfied with children,
And leave their abundance to their babes.

He delivered me from my strong enemy,
And from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.

They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
But the Lord was my stay.

I pursued my enemies and overtook them,
And I did not turn back until they were consumed.

I shattered them, so that they were not able to rise;
They fell under my feet.

They cried for help, but there was none to save,
Even to the Lord, but He did not answer them.

As soon as they hear, they obey me;
Foreigners submit to me.

The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether.

They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.

They have bowed down and fallen,
But we have risen and stood upright.

Though they intended evil against You
And devised a plot,
They will not succeed.

In You our fathers trusted;
They trusted and You delivered them.

To You they cried out and were delivered;
In You they trusted and were not disappointed.

All who see me sneer at me;
They separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying,

They open wide their mouth at me,
As a ravening and a roaring lion.

For dogs have surrounded me;
A band of evildoers has encompassed me;
They pierced my hands and my feet.

I can count all my bones.
They look, they stare at me;

They divide my garments among them,
And for my clothing they cast lots.

They will come and will declare His righteousness
To a people who will be born, that He has performed it.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

Remember, O Lord, Your compassion and Your lovingkindnesses,
For they have been from of old.

Look upon my enemies, for they are many,
And they hate me with violent hatred.

When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh,
My adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell.

Because they do not regard the works of the Lord
Nor the deeds of His hands,
He will tear them down and not build them up.

You will pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me,
For You are my strength.

For I have heard the slander of many,
Terror is on every side;
While they took counsel together against me,
They schemed to take away my life.

Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found;
Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him.

Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding,
Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check,
Otherwise they will not come near to you.

They looked to Him and were radiant,
And their faces will never be ashamed.

The young lions do lack and suffer hunger;
But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing.

For without cause they hid their net for me;
Without cause they dug a pit for my soul.

Malicious witnesses rise up;
They ask me of things that I do not know.

They repay me evil for good,
To the bereavement of my soul.

But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth;
I humbled my soul with fasting,
And my prayer kept returning to my bosom.

But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered themselves together;
The smiters whom I did not know gathered together against me,
They slandered me without ceasing.

Like godless jesters at a feast,
They gnashed at me with their teeth.

For they do not speak peace,
But they devise deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land.

They opened their mouth wide against me;
They said, “Aha, aha, our eyes have seen it!”

They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house;
And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights.

There the doers of iniquity have fallen;
They have been thrust down and cannot rise.

For they will wither quickly like the grass
And fade like the green herb.

For evildoers will be cut off,
But those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land.

They will not be ashamed in the time of evil,
And in the days of famine they will have abundance.

But the wicked will perish;
And the enemies of the Lord will be like the glory of the pastures,
They vanish—like smoke they vanish away.

For the Lord loves justice
And does not forsake His godly ones;
They are preserved forever,
But the descendants of the wicked will be cut off.

The Lord helps them and delivers them;
He delivers them from the wicked and saves them,
Because they take refuge in Him.

For my iniquities are gone over my head;
As a heavy burden they weigh too much for me.