If ye say, How shall we persecute him? when the root of the matter is found in me,

Be ye yourselves afraid of the sword! for the sword is fury against misdeeds, that ye may know there is a judgment.

Therefore do my thoughts give me an answer, and for this is my haste within me.

The exultation of the wicked is short, and the joy of the ungodly man but for a moment?

Like his own dung doth he perish for ever; they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?

He flieth away as a dream, and is not found; and is chased away as a vision of the night.

His food is turned in his bowels; it is the gall of asps within him.

All darkness is laid up for his treasures: a fire not blown shall devour him; it shall feed upon what is left in his tent.

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

As for me, is my complaint to a man? or wherefore should not my spirit be impatient?

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

Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of +God upon them.

And they say unto God, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways!

What is the Almighty that we should serve him? and what are we profited if we pray unto him?

Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand. The counsel of the wicked be far from me!

How often is the lamp of the wicked put out, and cometh their calamity upon them? Doth he distribute sorrows to them in his anger?

Do they become as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away?

For what pleasure should he have in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?

Can any teach God knowledge? And he it is that judgeth those that are high.

His sides are full of fat, and the marrow of his bones is moistened;

For ye say, Where is the house of the noble? and where the tent of the dwellings of the wicked?

That the wicked is reserved for the day of calamity? They are led forth to the day of wrath.

Yet is he carried to the graves, and watch is kept over the tomb.

The clods of the valley are sweet unto him; and every man followeth suit after him, as there were innumerable before him.

Can a man be profitable to God? surely it is unto himself that the wise man is profitable.

Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if thou art righteous? And is it gain to him that thou makest thy ways perfect?

Is not thy wickedness great? and thine iniquities without end?

Is not +God in the height of the heavens? And behold the summit of the stars: how exalted are they!

Who were carried off before the time, whose foundation was overflowed with a flood;

Who said unto God, Depart from us! and what could the Almighty do to them?

Yet he filled their houses with good. But the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

Is not he who rose against us destroyed, and doth not the fire consume his residue?

When they are made low, then thou shalt say, Rise up! and he shall save him that is of downcast eyes.

Even him that is not innocent shall he deliver; yea, he shall be delivered by the pureness of thy hands.

Even to-day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.

Lo, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I do not perceive him;

But he knoweth the way that I take; he trieth me, I shall come forth as gold.

But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? And what his soul desireth, that will he do.

For he will perform what is appointed for me; and many such things are with him.

They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow's ox for a pledge;

Lo, as wild asses in the desert, they go forth to their work, seeking early for the prey: the wilderness yieldeth them food for their children.

The murderer riseth with the light, killeth the afflicted and needy, and in the night is as a thief.

For the morning is to them all as the shadow of death; for they are familiar with the terrors of the shadow of death.

He is swift on the face of the waters; their portion is cursed on the earth: he turneth not unto the way of the vineyards.

The womb forgetteth him; the worm feedeth sweetly on him: he shall be no more remembered; and unrighteousness is broken as a tree, --

He draweth also the mighty with his power; he riseth up, and no man is sure of life.

They are exalted for a little, and are no more; they are laid low; like all other are they gathered, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.

Is there any number of his troops? and upon whom doth not his light arise?

And how should man be just with God? Or how should he be clean that is born of a woman?

Lo, even the moon is not bright; and the stars are not pure in his sight:

How hast thou helped the powerless; how saved the arm that is without strength!

How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom, and abundantly declared the thing as it is!

For whom hast thou uttered words? and whose spirit came from thee?

Sheol is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering.

He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them.

As God liveth, who hath taken away my right, and the Almighty, who hath embittered my soul,

All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of +God is in my nostrils,

Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.

For what is the hope of the ungodly, when God cutteth him off, when +God taketh away his soul?

I will teach you concerning the hand of God; what is with the Almighty will I not conceal.

This is the portion of the wicked man with God, and the heritage of the violent, which they receive from the Almighty: --

If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword, and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread;

Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare clothing as the clay;

He buildeth his house as the moth, and as a booth that a keeper maketh.

He lieth down rich, but will do so no more; he openeth his eyes, and he is not.

The east wind carrieth him away and he is gone; and as a storm it hurleth him out of his place.

Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold which they refine;

Iron is taken out of the dust, and copper is molten out of the stone.

As for the earth, out of it cometh bread, and underneath it is turned up as by fire;

It is a path no bird of prey knoweth, and the vulture's eye hath not seen it;

He bindeth the streams that they drip not, and what is hidden he bringeth forth to light.

But wisdom, where shall it be found? and where is the place of understanding?

Man knoweth not the value thereof; and it is not found in the land of the living.

The deep saith, It is not in me; and the sea saith, It is not with me.

It is not set in the balance with gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, and the sapphire.

Corals and crystal are no more remembered; yea, the acquisition of wisdom is above rubies.

Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?

For it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and concealed from the fowl of the heavens.

And unto man he said, Lo, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.

Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when +God preserved me;

As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret counsel of +God was over my tent,

I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was as a mantle and a turban.

And I said, I shall die in my nest, and multiply my days as the sand;

And they waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.

I chose their way, and sat as chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth mourners.

But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.

They are driven forth from among men they cry after them as after a thief --

They come in as through a wide breach: amid the confusion they roll themselves onward.

Terrors are turned against me; they pursue mine honour as the wind; and my welfare is passed away like a cloud.

And now my soul is poured out in me; days of affliction have taken hold upon me.

By their great force they have become my raiment; they bind me about as the collar of my coat.

Did not I weep for him whose days were hard? was not my soul grieved for the needy?

My skin is become black and falleth off me, and my bones are parched with heat.

My harp also is turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of weepers.

Is not calamity for the unrighteous? and misfortune for the workers of iniquity?

For this is an infamy; yea, it is an iniquity to be judged by the judges:

For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.

Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not One fashion us in the womb?

(For from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, and I have guided the widow from my mother's womb;)

This also would be an iniquity for the judge, for I should have denied the God who is above.