For your mouth is guided by your sin, and you have taken the tongue of the false for yourself.

It is by your mouth, even yours, that you are judged to be in the wrong, and not by me; and your lips give witness against you.

"Were you the first personto be born? Were you brought forth before the hills were made?

What knewest thou and we shall not know? wilt thou understand and it not be with us?

“Among us are both the gray-haired and the aged,
Older than your father.

“Are the consolations of God [as we have interpreted them to you] too trivial for you,
[Or] were we too gentle toward you [in our first speech] to be effective?

“Why does your heart carry you away [allowing you to be controlled by emotion]?
And why do your eyes flash [in anger or contempt],

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

What wise men have [freely] told,
And have not hidden [anything passed on to them] from their fathers,

“He does not believe that he will return out of the darkness [for fear of being murdered],
And he is destined for the sword [of God’s vengeance].

He wandereth abroad for bread, where may it be? He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

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

And he has made his resting-place in the towns which have been pulled down, in houses where no man had a right to be, whose fate was to become masses of broken walls.

He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth.

He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches, and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.

Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompence.

It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be green.

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

For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.

May words which are like the wind be stopped? or what is troubling you to make answer to them?

It would not be hard for me to say such things if your souls were in my soul's place; joining words together against you, and shaking my head at you:

I might harden you with my mouth, And the moving of my lips might be sparing.

“If I speak [to you miserable comforters], my pain is not relieved;
And if I refrain [from speaking], what [pain or anguish] leaves me?

Thou wilt lay fast hold on me to be for a testimony, and my leanness will rise up in me; it will answer against my face.

I am broken by his wrath, and his hate has gone after me; he has made his teeth sharp against me: my haters are looking on me with cruel eyes;

I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.

O earth, cover not my blood, and let there be no place for my cry!

“Oh, that a man would mediate and plead with God [for me]
Just as a man [mediates and pleads] with his neighbor and friend.

When, a few years, come, then, by a path by which I shall not return, shall I depart.

Give now a pledge, be surety for me with thyself; Who is there that will strike hands with me?

“But You [Lord] have closed their hearts to understanding,
Therefore You will not exalt them [by giving a verdict against me].

As for him who is false to his friend for a reward, light will be cut off from the eyes of his children.

And he hath made me a proverb of the peoples; and I am become one to be spit on in the face.

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.

The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.

My days have passed by, My devices have been broken off, The possessions of my heart!

Night for day, they appoint, Light, is near, by reason of darkness!

If I hope for the grave to be my home, if I spread out my bed in darkness,

If I call out to the pit (grave), ‘You are my father’;
And to the worm [that feeds on decay], ‘You are my mother and my sister [because I will soon be closest to you],’

Where then would be my hope? And, as for my blessedness, who should see it!

It shall go down to the bars of Sheol, when our rest shall be together in the dust.

How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? mark, and afterwards we will speak.

Why should we be regarded as beasts, and considered stupid in your sight?

He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?

Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.

The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.

The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down.

For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.

The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him.

He is overcome by fears on every side, they go after him at every step.

His strength shall be hungerbitten, and destruction shall be ready at his side.

The members of his body shall be devoured, Yea , the first-born of death shall devour his members.

His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.

It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.

His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off.

His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and his name shall not be praised in the streets:

He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.

They that come after him shall be astonied at his day, as they that went before were affrighted.

"How long do you intend to keep torturing me and trying to break me by what you're saying?

These ten times ye will reproach me: ye will not be ashamed, ye will injure me.

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

But if ye will enhance yourselves against me, and accuse me to be a wicked person because of the shame that is come upon me;

Be certain that it is God who has done me wrong, and has taken me in his net.

Behold: though I cry, yet violence is done unto me. I cannot be heard! Though I complain, there is none to give sentence with me.

My way is walled up by him so that I may not go by: he has made my roads dark.

I am broken down by him on every side, and I am gone; my hope is uprooted like a tree.

My relatives stop coming by,
and my close friends have forgotten me.

My breath is hated by my wife, and I must beg to the sons of my mother's womb.

My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

"Be gracious to me, be gracious to me, my friends, because God's hand has struck me.

Why do you pursue me like God does? Will you never be satiated with my flesh?

Who doth grant now, That my words may be written? Who doth grant that in a book they may be graven?

With a pen of iron and lead -- For ever in a rock they may be hewn.

And if after my skin this shall be destroyed, yet from out of my flesh shall I see +God;

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

If you say, How cruel we will be to him! because the root of sin is clearly in him:

Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.

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

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

Though he be magnified up to the heaven, so that his head reacheth into the clouds:

He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.

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

His bones may be full of youthful vigor,
but will lie down with him in the grave.

Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue;

yet his food in his belly shall be turned; the gall of asps is within him.

He takes down wealth as food, and sends it up again; it is forced out of his stomach by God.

That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein.

Because he has been cruel to the poor, turning away from them in their trouble; because he has taken a house by force which he did not put up;

His belly could never be filled; therefore shall he perish in his covetousness.

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

In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.

It shall be that, to fill his belly, he will cast his fierce anger upon him, and will rain it upon him into his flesh.

He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through.

He is pulling it out, and it comes out of his back; and its shining point comes out of his side; he is overcome by fears.

All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.

The heavens shall reveal his iniquity, and, the earth, be rising up against him:

The products of his house will be carried away [like] gushing waters on the day of his wrath.

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

Hear diligently my speech, and let this be your consolations.