and that he would show thee the secrets of wisdom! For he is manifold in understanding. Know therefore that God exacts of thee less than thine iniquity deserves.

It is high as heaven; what can thou do? Deeper than Sheol; what can thou know?

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

But vain man is void of understanding. Yea, man is born [as] a wild donkey's colt.

if iniquity is in thy hand, put it far away, and let not unrighteousness dwell in thy tents.

For thou shall forget thy misery. Thou shall remember it as waters that are passed away.

And [thy] life shall be clearer than the noonday. Though there be darkness, it shall be as the morning.

And thou shall be secure, because there is hope. Yea, thou shall search [about thee], and shall take thy rest in safety.

But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who does not know such things as these?

I am as a man who is a laughing-stock to his neighbor. I who called upon God, and he answered. The just, the perfect man is a laughing-stock.

In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for those whose foot slips.

The tents of robbers prosper, and those who provoke God are secure. Into whose hand God brings [abundantly].

in whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?

Does not the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food?

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

With [God] is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding.

With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his.

He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.

Is it good that he should search you out? Or as deceiving a man, will ye deceive him?

Who is he who will contend with me? For then I would keep silent and give up the spirit.

Though I am like a rotten thing that decays, like a garment that is moth-eaten.

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

He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down. He too flees as a shadow, and does not continue.

Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with thee, and thou have appointed his bounds that he cannot pass,

look away from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as a hireling, his day.

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

But man dies, and is laid low. Yea, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?

[As] the waters fail from the sea, and the river wastes away and dries up,

My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou fasten up my iniquity.

But the falling mountain comes to nothing, and the rock is removed out of its place.

Should a wise man make answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?

What do thou know, that we do not know? What do thou understand, which is not in us?

With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much older than thy father.

Are the consolations of God too small for thee, even the word that is gentle toward thee?

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

How much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!

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

A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

He does not believe that he shall return out of darkness. And he is awaited by the sword.

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

Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him as a king ready to the battle.

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

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

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

And thou have laid fast hold on me, [which] is a witness [against me]. And my leanness rises up against me; it testifies to my face.

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

although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.

Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who vouches for me is on high.

My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, the grave is [ready] for me.

Give now a pledge, be surety for me with thyself. Who is there that will strike hands with me?

My eye also is dim because of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.

But as for you all, come on now again, and I shall not find a wise man among you.

They change the night into day. The light, [they say], is near to the darkness.

If I look for Sheol as my house, if I have spread my couch in the darkness,

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

It shall go down to the bars of Sheol when once there is rest in the dust.

Why are we counted as beasts, [and] have become unclean in your sight?

For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walks upon the toils.

A noose is hid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.

There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his. Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.

Those who come after shall be astonished at his day, as those who went before were frightened.

Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous, and this is the place of him who does not know God.

Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard. I cry for help, but there is no justice.

He has also kindled his wrath against me. And he considers me to him as his adversaries.

My breath is strange to my wife, and my supplication to the sons of my own mother.

Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

But as for me I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand up upon the earth.

And after my skin, this [body], is destroyed, then outside my flesh I shall see God,

whom I, even I, shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger. My heart is consumed within me.

If ye say, How we will persecute him! And that the root of the matter is found in me,

be ye afraid of the sword. For wrath [brings] the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.

Therefore my thoughts cause me to answer, even because of my haste that is in me.

that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the profane but for a moment?

yet he shall perish forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him shall say, Where is he?

He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found. Yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.

yet his food in his bowels is turned. It is the gall of asps within him.

In the fullness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits. The hand of everyone who is in misery shall come upon him.

When he is about to fill his belly, [God] will cast the fierceness of his wrath upon him, and will rain it upon him while he is eating.

All darkness is laid up for his treasures. A fire not blown shall devour him. It shall consume that which is left in his tent.

This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed to him by God.

As for me, is my complaint to man? And why should I not be impatient?

Their seed is established with them in their sight, and their offspring before their eyes.

Their houses are safe from fear, nor is the rod of God upon them.

And they say to God, Depart from us, for we do not desire the knowledge of thy ways.

What is the Almighty that we should serve him? And what profit should we have, if we pray to him?

Lo, [is] their prosperity not in their hand. (The counsel of the wicked is far from me.)

How often is it that the lamp of the profane is put out, that their calamity comes upon them, that [God] distributes sorrows in his anger,

that they are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carries away?

For what does he care for his house after him when the number of his months is cut off?

His pails are full of milk, and the marrow of his bones is moistened.

For ye say, Where is the house of the prince? And where is the tent in which the wicked dwelt?

that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity? That they are led forth to the day of wrath?

The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him. And all men shall draw after him, as there were innumerable before him.

Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.

Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou are righteous? Or is it gain [to him] that thou make thy ways perfect?

Is it for thy fear [of him] that he reproves thee, that he enters with thee into judgment?

Is not thy wickedness great? Neither is there any end to thine iniquities.

But as for the mighty man, he had the land. And the honorable man, he dwelt in it.

Is not God in the height of heaven? And behold the height of the stars, how high they are!

Who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream,