He is moist before the sun, and his branches shoot forth in his garden.

If he is destroyed from his place, then it shall deny him: I have not seen you.

Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the earth shall others grow.

Truly I know it is so, but how can man be just with God?

He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength. Who has hardened himself against Him and been blessed;

who is doing great things past finding out; yea, marvelous things without number?

If I speak of strength, lo, He is mighty! And if of judgment, who shall set me a time?

It is One, therefore I said, He is consuming the perfect and the wicked.

The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; He covers the faces of its judges; if it is not He, then who is it?

For He is not a man, as I am, that I should answer Him, that we should come together in judgment;

there is no mediator between us, who might lay his hand on us both.

then would I speak and not fear Him; for it is not so with me.

My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint on my self; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

Is it good to You that You should press down, that You should despise the work of Your hands, and shine on the counsel of the wicked?

Have You eyes of flesh? Or do You see as a man sees?

You know that I am not wicked; and there is none who can deliver out of Your hand.

Remember, I beseech You, that You have formed me as the clay; and will You bring me into the dust again?

For it increases! You hunt me as a fierce lion; and again You show Yourself marvelous on me.

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

a land of obscurity, the darkness of the shadow of death, without any order, and the shining is as darkness.

For you have said, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in Your eyes.

and would tell you the secrets of His wisdom, that sound wisdom is manifold? Know therefore that God forgets for you some of your iniquity.

Heights of the heavens! What can you do? It is deeper than hell, what can you know?

The measure of it is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.

For foolish man would be wise, and man is born a wild ass's colt.

if iniquity is in your hand, put it far away, and do not let wickedness dwell in your tents;

for you shall forget your misery, and you shall remember it as waters that pass away.

And your lifetime shall be clearer than the noonday; though there be darkness, you shall be as the morning.

And you shall be safe, because there is hope; yea, you shall look around you, and you shall take your rest in safety.

But I have understanding as well as you; I do not fall short of you; yes, who does not know such things as these?

I am a laughing-stock to his friends; who calls on God, and He answers him; the just, the upright one is a mockery;

a flaming brand despised in the thoughts of him who feels secure; it is ready for those with slipping feet.

In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all flesh, even of man?

With the aged is wisdom, and understanding in length of days.

With Him is wisdom and strength; He has wisdom and understanding.

With Him is strength and sound wisdom; the deceived and the deceiver are His.

He leads wise men away stripped, and makes the judges fools.

He takes away the heart of the chief of the people of the land, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no path.

Is it good that He should search you out? Or as one man mocks another, do you mock Him?

He also is my salvation, for an ungodly one shall not come before Him.

Who is he that will plead for me, for now, I would be quiet and expire.

Man born of woman is of few days, and full of trouble.

He comes forth like a flower, and withers; he also flees as a shadow, and does not stand.

For his days are fixed, the number of his months is with You, and You have set his bounds so that he cannot pass;

look away from him, so that he may rest until he shall finish his day, as a hireling.

For there is hope of a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and its tender branch will not cease.

But man dies and is cut off; and man expires, and where is he?

As the waters fail from the sea, and a river falls away and dries up,

Who will grant that You would hide me in the grave, that You would keep me secret, until Your wrath is past, that You would set me a fixed time and remember me?

My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and You cover over my iniquity.

But his flesh is pained within him; and his soul mourns over him.

Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?

Should he reason with talk that is not useful, or with speeches which have no profit?

What do you know that we do not know, or understand that is not with us?

With us are both the gray-headed and aged, mightier than your father as to days.

What is man, that he should be clean? And what is he born of a woman that he should be righteous?

How much more hateful and filthy is man, who drinks iniquity like water?

that which wise men have told, and have not hidden from their fathers;

The wicked man labors in pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden for the ruthless one.

A dreadful sound of things is in his ears; the destroyer shall come to him in peace.

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

He wanders for bread, saying, Where is it? He knows that the day of darkness is ready at hand.

Trouble and pain shall terrify him; they shall overpower him, as a king ready for the battle;

He shall shake off its unripe grape, as the vine; and shall cast off his flower like the olive.

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

Though I speak, my pain is not held back, and though I forbear, in what way am I eased?

And You have plucked me, for it is a witness, and my failure rises up against me, and it answers to my face.

My face is reddened from weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

though no violence is in my hand, and my prayer is pure.

Also now, behold, my Witness is in Heaven, and He who testifies of me is on high.

Oh that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleads for his neighbor!

My spirit is broken, my days are ended, the graves are ready for me.

Please lay down a pledge for me with Yourself; who is he who will strike hands with me?

He has made me also a byword of the peoples; and I am one in whose face they spit.

My eye also is dim from grief; and all my members are like a shadow.

And now all of them, go back, and please come again; and I shall not find among you a wise man.

They set night for day; the light is near in the face of darkness.

If I wait for the grave as my home, I have made my bed in the darkness;

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

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

Why are we counted as cattle, or seem stupid in your sight?

For he is thrown into a net by his own feet, and he walks on a net.

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

What is not his shall dwell in his tent; brimstone shall be scattered on his home.

His memory shall perish from the earth, and there is no name to him on the face of the street.

Behold, I cry out, Violence! And I am not answered. I cry aloud, but there is no justice.

He has also kindled His wrath against me, and to Himself He counts me as His enemy.

Those who dwell in my house, and my slave-girls, count me as a stranger; I am a foreigner in their sight.

My breath is hated by my wife, and I must beg to the sons of my mother's womb.

For you ought to say, Why do we persecute him, since the root of the matter is found in me?

Fear for yourselves because of the sword; for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment.

that the exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the ungodly is for a moment?

he shall perish forever like his dung; they who see him shall say, Where is he?

Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue;

yet his food in his belly shall be turned; the gall of asps is within him.

giving back his gain, and he will not eat. As to the wealth of his trading, even he shall not enjoy it.

It shall happen at the filling of his belly, God shall cast the fury of His wrath on him, and He shall rain on him while he is eating.

One draws it, and treads it from behind, even lightning from his gall; terror is on him.

This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the inheritance of his word from God.

As for me, is my complaint to man? And why should my spirit not be troubled?