With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder than thy father.

What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?

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

The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.

Running against him like a man of war, covered by his thick breastplate; even like a king ready for the fight,

And he dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps.

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

But now he made me weary: thou hast made desolate all mine assembly.

He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.

They have opened their mouths wide upon me, and smitten me upon the cheek despitefully, they have eased themselves through mine adversity.

God hath delivered me over to the iniquitous man, and hurled me into the hands of the wicked.

He breaketh me with breach upon breach; he runneth upon me like a mighty man.

My face is foul with weeping, And on mine eyelids is death-shade.

Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.

O earth! do not cover my blood, and let there be no place for mine outcry.

My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.

O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!

My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are mine.

Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?

Be pleased, now, to be responsible for me to yourself; for there is no other who will put his hand in mine.

If a man informs on his friends for a price,
the eyes of his children will fail.

He has made me an object of scorn to the people;
I have become a man people spit at.

Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.

Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.

But the righteous man holds to his way, and the one with clean hands grows stronger.

But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.

These men change night into day; they say, 'The light is near in the face of darkness.'

If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.

Other men shall dwell in his house - which now is none of his - and brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.

“Those in the west are astonished and appalled at his fate,
And those in the east are seized with horror.

Surely, such are the dwellings of the unrighteous man, and such the place of him that knoweth not God.

And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.

Truly, I make an outcry against the violent man, but there is no answer: I give a cry for help, but no one takes up my cause.

Mine honour from off me He hath stripped, And He turneth the crown from my head.

He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.

His armies come on together, they make their road high against me, and put up their tents round mine.

He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.

Failed me, have my near of kin, and, mine intimate acquaintances, have forgotten me;

They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.

To mine own servant, I called, and he would not answer, With mine own mouth, I kept entreating him;

My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's sake of mine own body.

Abominate me do all the men of my counsel, And those I have loved, Have been turned against me.

Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

I hear a reproof putting me to shame; and my spirit answereth me by mine understanding.

Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth,

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

There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.

All darkness is laid up for his treasures: A fire not blown by man'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 unto him by God.

As for me, is my complaint to man? and if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled?

Wherefore do, lawless men, live, advance in years, even wax mighty in power?

Lo! not in their own hand, is their welfare, The counsel of lawless men, is far from me!

“You say, ‘God stores away [the punishment of] man’s wickedness for his children.’
Let God repay him so that he may know and experience it.

“For what pleasure does he have in his house and family after he is dead,
When the number of his months [of life] is cut off?

This, man dieth, in the very perfection of his prosperity, wholly tranquil and secure;

Whereas another dies with a bitter soul,
Never even tasting pleasure or good fortune.

Have ye not asked wayfaring men? And do ye not know their evidences,

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

“But who will confront him with his actions and rebuke him face to face,
And who will repay him for what he has done?

Yet shall he be borne to the grave, And men shall keep watch over the tomb.

The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall draw after him, as there are innumerable before him.

Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?

“For you have taken pledges of your brothers without cause,
And stripped men naked.

But as for the mighty man, he had the earth; and the honourable man dwelt in it.

Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden?

Men who were snatched away before their time,
Whose foundations were poured out like a river?

Yea, the Almighty his own self shall be thine harvest, and the heap of thy money.

When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person.

He makes safe the man who is free from sin, and if your hands are clean, salvation will be yours.

There would an upright man reason with him; and I should be delivered for ever from my judge.

The landmarks are changed by evil men, they violently take away flocks, together with their keepers.

“They harvest their fodder in a field [that is not their own],
And glean the vineyard of the wicked.

They are the cause that so many men are naked and bare, having no clothes to cover them and keep them from cold;

“Others snatch the fatherless [infants] from the breast [to sell or make them slaves],
And against the poor they take a pledge [of clothing].

They make oil within the walls of these men; They tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst.

Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them.

And the man whose desire is for the wife of another is waiting for the evening, saying, No eye will see me; and he puts a cover on his face. And in the night the thief goes about;

“They are insignificant on the surface of the water;
Their portion is cursed on the earth;
They do not turn toward the vineyards.

The public place of his town has no more knowledge of him, and his name has gone from the memory of men: he is rooted up like a dead tree.

“He preys on the barren (childless) woman
And does no good for the widow.

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

They are exalted a little, and are not, Yea having been laid low, like all men, are they gathered, Even as the top of an ear of corn, do they hang down.

whose men of war are innumerable, and whose light ariseth over all.

How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?

Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight.

How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?

[He] covers [the] face of [the] full moon; [he] spreads his cloud over it.

God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.

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

For what hope does the godless man have when he is cut off,
when God takes away his life?

“I will teach you regarding the hand (power) of God;
I will not conceal what is with the Almighty [God’s actual treatment of the wicked].

This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty.

Look, whom he leaveth behind him, they shall die and be buried, and no man shall have pity of his widows.

Though he have as much money as the dust of the earth, and raiment as ready as the clay,

what he stores up a righteous man will wear, and an innocent man will inherit his silver.

The rich man shall lie down, but he shall not be gathered: he openeth his eyes, and he is not.

Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place.

Surely there is a mine for silver, And a place for gold which they refine.

Man'setteth an end to darkness, And searcheth out, to the furthest bound, The stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.