All my intimate friends abhor me, and they whom I loved are turned against me.

My bones are joined to my skin, and I have got away with my flesh in my teeth.

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

Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another: my reins are consumed within me.

Be ye afraid because of the sword, For furious are the punishments of the sword, That ye may know that there is a judgment.

For this cause my thoughts are troubling me and driving me on.

I have to give ear to arguments which put me to shame, and your answers to me are wind without wisdom.

His children are hoping that the poor will be kind to them, and his hands give back his wealth.

His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.

He will not look on the streams, the rivers, which are the torrents of honey and butter.

It is drawn, and comes out of the body; yea, the glittering sword comes out of his gall: terrors are upon him.

Why do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?

Their descendants are established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes.

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

They make songs to the instruments of music, and are glad at the sound of the pipe.

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

Look, their prosperity [is] not in their hands; the schemes of [the] wicked are repugnant to me.

They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carries away.

Shall any teach God knowledge? seeing he judges those that are on high.

His breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow.

Together they go down to the dust, and are covered by the worm.

"Yes, I know what you are thinking, the schemes by which you would wrong me.

For you say, Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked?

That the wicked are reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.

when he is carried away to the cemetery and guardians are placed to watch his tomb?

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

So how can you offer me such futile comfort?
Your answers are deceptive.

Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that you are righteous? or is it gain to him, that you make your ways blameless?

Isn’t your wickedness abundant
and aren’t your iniquities endless?

Widows thou hast sent away empty, And the arms of the fatherless are bruised.

Therefore snares are round about you, and sudden fear troubles you;

Your light is made dark so that you are unable to see, and you are covered by a mass of waters.

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

Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he sees not; and he walks in the circle of heaven.

Yet he himself filled up their houses [with] good [things], but [the] schemes of [the] wicked are repugnant to me.

The righteous see it, and are glad: and the innocent laugh them to scorn.

saying, 'Surely those who rose up against us are cut off. The fire has consumed the remnant of them.'

When men are cast down, then you shall 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.

For he performs the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.

Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days?

There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them.

They push the needy off the road;
the poor of the land are forced into hiding.

Ill-clad, they are left to lodge without clothing, and have no covering in the cold;

They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter.

There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor,

Between their terraces they press out oil; they tread [the] presses, but they are thirsty.

From the town come sounds of pain from those who are near death, and the soul of the wounded is crying out for help; but God does not take note of their prayer.

They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not its ways, nor abide in its paths.

In the dark he makes holes in the walls of houses: in the daytime they are shutting themselves up, they have no knowledge of the light.

For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one recognizes them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.

They are swift as the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth: no one turns into the way of the vineyards.

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

They pluck down the mighty with their power, and when they themselves are gotten up, they are never without fear, as long as they live.

Though it be given him to be in safety, he rests; yet his eyes are upon their ways.

They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all others, and cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.

Is it not so? Who will then reprove me as a liar, and say that my words are nothing worth?"

Dominion and fear are with him, he makes peace in his high places.

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

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

How much less is man, who is only a maggot, or a man's children, who are only worms!"

“What a help you are to the weak!
How you have saved the arm without strength!

Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof.

yea, and all they which dwell beneath in the hell are not hid from him, and the very destruction itself cannot be kept out of his sight.

By him the waters are shut up in his thick clouds, and the cloud does not give way under them.

The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his rebuke.

By his Spirit the heavens are adorned; his hand hath formed the fleeing serpent.

Lo, these are only parts of his ways: and how little a whisper is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?

Far be it from me that {I would say that you are right}; until I pass away, I will not put away from me my blamelessness.

Behold, all you yourselves have seen it; why then are you thus altogether vain?

If his sons multiply -- for them is a sword. And his offspring are not satisfied with bread.

His remnant in death are buried, And his widows do not weep.

There are places were silver is molten, and where gold is tried;

He breaks open a shaft away from the inhabitants; even in places forgotten of the foot: they are gone away from men, they swing to and fro.

A place of the sapphire are its stones, And it hath dust of gold.

Gold and glass are not equal to it in price, and it may not be exchanged for jewels of the best gold.

Corals and pearl are not remembered, The acquisition of wisdom is above rubies.

If only I might again be as I was in the months which are past, in the days when God was watching over me!

"I used to say: "I will die in my home. I'm going to live as many days as there are grains of sand on the shore.

‘My glory and honor are fresh in me [being constantly renewed],
And my bow gains [ever] new strength in my hand.’

To me they have hearkened, Yea, they wait, and are silent for my counsel.

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

From want and famine they are gaunt; fleeing of late into the wilderness, desolate and waste.

They are picking salt herbs, the leaves of bushes, and [the] roots of broom trees to warm themselves.

From the midst they are cast out, (They shout against them as a thief),

They are living on the slopes of the wadis,
among the rocks and in holes in the ground.

Among shrubs they do groan, Under nettles they are gathered together.

Sons of fools, and sons of nameless sires, they are driven out of the land.

“They break up and clutter my path [upsetting my plans],
They profit from my destruction;
No one restrains them.

Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my honor as the wind: and my welfare passes away as a cloud.

My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest.

My clothes are disheveled by his forceful treatment of me; he restricts my movement like the collar of my cloak.

You changed toward me, and now you're cruel to me; with your mighty hand you are persecuting me;

I know that you are bringing me to death, to the meeting place for all the living.

Now use not men to do violence unto them, that are destroyed already; but where hurt is done, there use they to help.

My bowels are in turmoil, and they are not still; days of misery come to confront me.

My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.

But my harp is in mourning; my flute plays only songs for those who are weeping."

Does he not see my ways, and are not my steps all numbered?

If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, You are my confidence;