how much less one who is revolting and corrupt,
who drinks injustice like water?

Trouble and distress terrify him,
overwhelming him like a king prepared for battle.

He will be like a vine that drops its unripe grapes
and like an olive tree that sheds its blossoms.

I have heard many things like these.
You are all miserable comforters.

If you were in my place I could also talk like you.
I could string words together against you
and shake my head at you.

He breaks through my defenses again and again;
He charges at me like a warrior.

He tears me down on every side so that I am ruined.
He uproots my hope like a tree.

he will vanish forever like his own dung.
Those who know him will ask, “Where is he?”

He will fly away like a dream and never be found;
he will be chased away like a vision in the night.

They let their little ones run around like lambs;
their children skip about,

Are they like straw before the wind,
like chaff a storm sweeps away?

He will certainly accomplish what He has decreed for me,
and He has many more things like these in mind.

Like wild donkeys in the desert,
the poor go out to their task of foraging for food;
the wilderness provides nourishment for their children.

For the morning is like darkness to them.
Surely they are familiar with the terrors of darkness!

The womb forgets them;
worms feed on them;
they are remembered no more.
So injustice is broken like a tree.

They are exalted for a moment, then they are gone;
they are brought low and shrivel up like everything else.
They wither like heads of grain.

May my enemy be like the wicked
and my opponent like the unjust.

Though he piles up silver like dust
and heaps up a wardrobe like clay—

The house he built is like a moth’s cocoon
or a booth set up by a watchman.

Terrors overtake him like a flood;
a storm wind sweeps him away at night.

I clothed myself in righteousness,
and it enveloped me;
my just decisions were like a robe and a turban.

After a word from me they did not speak again;
my speech settled on them like dew.

I directed their course and presided as chief.
I lived as a king among his troops,
like one who comforts those who mourn.

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Terrors are turned loose against me;
they chase my dignity away like the wind,
and my prosperity has passed by like a cloud.

He throws me into the mud,
and I have become like dust and ashes.

I would surely carry it on my shoulder
and wear it like a crown.

I would give Him an account of all my steps;
I would approach Him like a prince.

My heart is like unvented wine;
it is about to burst like new wineskins.

I am just like you before God;
I was also pinched off from a piece of clay.

But if you have something to say, answer me;
speak, for I would like to justify you.

What man is like Job?
He drinks derision like water.

If only Job were tested to the limit,
because his answers are like those of wicked men.

Your wickedness affects a person like yourself,
and your righteousness another human being.

Look, God shows Himself exalted by His power.
Who is a teacher like Him?

Get ready to answer Me like a man;
when I question you, you will inform Me.

The earth is changed as clay is by a seal;
its hills stand out like the folds of a garment.

when the dust hardens like cast metal
and the clods of dirt stick together?

The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully,
but are her feathers and plumage like the stork’s?

Do you make him leap like a locust?
His proud snorting fills one with terror.

Get ready to answer Me like a man;
When I question you, you will inform Me.

Do you have an arm like God’s?
Can you thunder with a voice like His?

Look at Behemoth,
which I made along with you.
He eats grass like an ox.

He stiffens his tail like a cedar tree;
the tendons of his thighs are woven firmly together.

His bones are bronze tubes;
his limbs are like iron rods.

Can you play with him like a bird
or put him on a leash for your girls?

His snorting flashes with light,
while his eyes are like the rays of dawn.

No arrow can make him flee;
slingstones become like stubble to him.

His undersides are jagged potsherds,
spreading the mud like a threshing sledge.

He makes the depths seethe like a cauldron;
he makes the sea like an ointment jar.

He is like a tree planted beside streams of water
that bears its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.

The wicked are not like this;
instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away.

You will break them with a rod of iron;
You will shatter them like pottery.”

For You, Lord, bless the righteous one;
You surround him with favor like a shield.

or they will tear me like a lion,
ripping me apart with no one to rescue me.

he lurks in secret like a lion in a thicket.
He lurks in order to seize the afflicted;
he seizes the afflicted and drags him in his net.

For the choir director. Davidic.I have taken refuge in the Lord.
How can you say to me,
“Escape to the mountain like a bird!

The words of the Lord are pure words,
like silver refined in an earthen furnace,
purified seven times.

They are like a lion eager to tear,
like a young lion lurking in ambush.

He makes my feet like the feet of a deer
and sets me securely on the heights.

I pulverize them like dust before the wind;
I trample them like mud in the streets.

It is like a groom coming from the bridal chamber;
it rejoices like an athlete running a course.

You will make them burn
like a fiery furnace when you appear;
the Lord will engulf them in His wrath,
and fire will devour them.

I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are disjointed;
my heart is like wax,
melting within me.

My strength is dried up like baked clay;
my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.
You put me into the dust of death.

Davidic.Lord, I call to You;
my rock, do not be deaf to me.
If You remain silent to me,
I will be like those going down to the Pit.

He makes Lebanon skip like a calf,
and Sirion, like a young wild ox.

Lord, when You showed Your favor,
You made me stand like a strong mountain;
when You hid Your face, I was terrified.

I am forgotten: gone from memory
like a dead person—like broken pottery.

Do not be like a horse or mule,
without understanding,
that must be controlled with bit and bridle
or else it will not come near you.

Let them be like chaff in the wind,
with the angel of the Lord driving them away.

My very bones will say,
“Lord, who is like You,
rescuing the poor from one too strong for him,
the poor or the needy from one who robs him?”

I went about grieving as if for my friend or brother;
I was bowed down with grief,
like one mourning a mother.

Your righteousness is like the highest mountains;
Your judgments, like the deepest sea.
Lord, You preserve man and beast.

For they wither quickly like grass
and wilt like tender green plants.

making your righteousness shine like the dawn,
your justice like the noonday.

But the wicked will perish;
the Lord’s enemies, like the glory of the pastures,
will fade away—
they will fade away like smoke.

I have seen a wicked, violent man
well-rooted like a flourishing native tree.

I am like a deaf person; I do not hear.
I am like a speechless person
who does not open his mouth.

I am like a man who does not hear
and has no arguments in his mouth.

“Certainly, man walks about like a mere shadow.
Indeed, they frantically rush around in vain,
gathering possessions
without knowing who will get them.

You discipline a man with punishment for sin,
consuming like a moth what is precious to him;
every man is only a vapor.Selah

“Hear my prayer, Lord,
and listen to my cry for help;
do not be silent at my tears.
For I am a foreigner residing with You,
a temporary resident like all my fathers.

You hand us over to be eaten like sheep
and scatter us among the nations.

Trembling seized them there,
agony like that of a woman in labor,

Your name, God, like Your praise,
reaches to the ends of the earth;
Your right hand is filled with justice.

But despite his assets, man will not last;
he is like the animals that perish.

Like sheep they are headed for Sheol;
Death will shepherd them.
The upright will rule over them in the morning,
and their form will waste away in Sheol,
far from their lofty abode.

A man with valuable possessions
but without understanding
is like the animals that perish.

You have done these things, and I kept silent;
you thought I was just like you.
But I will rebuke you
and lay out the case before you.

Like a sharpened razor,
your tongue devises destruction,
working treachery.

But I am like a flourishing olive tree
in the house of God;
I trust in God’s faithful love forever and ever.

Then they will be filled with terror—
terror like no other—
because God will scatter
the bones of those who besiege you.
You will put them to shame,
for God has rejected them.

I said, “If only I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and find rest.

They have venom like the venom of a snake,
like the deaf cobra that stops up its ears,

They will vanish like water that flows by;
they will aim their useless arrows.

Like a slug that moves along in slime,
like a woman’s miscarried child,
they will not see the sun.

They return at evening, snarling like dogs
and prowling around the city.

And they return at evening, snarling like dogs
and prowling around the city.

who sharpen their tongues like swords
and aim bitter words like arrows,

Your righteousness reaches heaven, God,
You who have done great things;
God, who is like You?