Whose confidence shall break apart, Whose trust is a spider's web.

He is green before the sun. His shoots go forth over his garden.

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

Behold, this is the joy of his way: out of the earth, others shall spring.

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

If he is pleased to contend with him, he can't answer him one time in a thousand.

God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who has hardened himself against him, and prospered?

If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty. If of justice, 'Who,' says he, 'will summon me?'

"It is all the same. Therefore I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked.

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

They have passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that swoops on the prey.

For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, that we should come together in judgment.

There is no umpire between us, that might lay his hand on us both.

"My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked?

Do you have eyes of flesh? Or do you see as man sees?

Are your days as the days of mortals, or your years as man's years,

Although you know that I am not wicked, there is no one who can deliver out of your hand.

Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again?

Yet you hid these things in your heart. I know that this is with you:

If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion. Again you show yourself powerful to me.

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

the land dark as midnight, of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as midnight.'"

For you say, 'My doctrine is pure. I am clean in your eyes.'

They are high as heaven. What can you do? They are deeper than Sheol. What can you know?

Its measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.

An empty-headed man becomes wise when a man is born as a wild donkey's colt.

If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away. Do not let unrighteousness dwell in your tents.

for you shall forget your misery. You shall remember it as waters that are passed away.

Life shall be clearer than the noonday. Though there is darkness, it shall be as the morning.

You shall be secure, because there is hope. Yes, you shall search, and shall take your rest in safety.

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

I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke.

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

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

Doesn't the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food?

With aged men is wisdom, 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.

Oh that you would be completely silent. Then you would be wise.

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

Who is he who will contend with me? For then would I hold my peace and give up the spirit.

though I am decaying like a rotten thing, 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 also flees like a shadow, and doesn't continue.

Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his bounds that he can't pass;

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

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

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

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

"Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would keep me secret, until your wrath is past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me.

My disobedience is sealed up in a bag. You fasten up my iniquity.

"But the mountain falling comes to nothing. The rock is removed out of its place;

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

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

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

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

What is man, that he should be clean? What is 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 by their fathers, and have not hidden it;

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

He doesn't believe that he shall return out of darkness. He is waited for 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 you do. If your soul were in my soul's place, I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you,

"Though I speak, my grief is not subsided. Though I forbear, what am I eased?

You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me. It testifies to my face.

My face is red with weeping. Deep darkness 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. He who vouches for me is on high.

"My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct, And the grave is ready for me.

"Now give a pledge, be collateral for me with yourself. Who is there who will strike hands with me?

My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.

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

My days are past, my plans are broken off, as are the thoughts of my heart.

They change the night into day, saying 'The light is near' in the presence of darkness.

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

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

Why are we counted as animals, which have become unclean in your sight?

For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he wanders into its mesh.

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

There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his. Sulfur shall be scattered on 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. This is the place of him who doesn't know God."

If it is true that I have erred, my error remains with myself.

"Behold, I cry out 'Injustice.' but there is no justice.

My breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.

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

But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.

After my skin is destroyed, then in my flesh shall I see God,

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

If you say, 'How we will persecute him.' because the root of the matter is found in me,

be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment."

"Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me, even by reason of my haste that is in me.

that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless 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. Yes, he shall be chased away like a vision of the night.

"Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue,