And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out of his place.

Water wears away the stones,
Its floods and torrents wash away the soil of the earth,
So You [O Lord] destroy the hope of man.

Thou prevailest over him for ever, and he goeth, He is changing his countenance, And Thou sendest him away.

If his sons receive honor, he does not know it;
if they become insignificant, he is unaware of it.

Only -- his flesh for him is pained, And his soul for him doth mourn.'

Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?

Should he argue in talk [that] is not profitable or [in] words with which he cannot do good?

"{What is worse}, you yourself are doing away with fear, and you are lessening meditation {before} God.

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 man to be born [the original wise man],
Or were you created before the hills?

Hast thou heard the secret counsel of God, that all wisdom is too little for thee?

What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us?

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

Are the consolations of God small with thee? is there any secret thing with thee?

Why is your heart uncontrolled, and why are your eyes lifted up;

That you should turn your spirit against God
And let such words [as you have spoken] go out of your mouth?

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

Look, if God doesn't trust his holy ones, if even the heavens aren't pure as he looks at them,

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.

A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword.

He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

Because his hand is stretched out against God, and his heart is lifted up against the Ruler of all,

Though his face is covered with fat
and his waistline bulges with it,

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 is not rich, nor doth his wealth rise, Nor doth he stretch out on earth their continuance.

“He will not escape from darkness [fleeing disaster];
The flame [of God’s wrath] will wither his branch,
And by the blast of His mouth he will go away.

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

Not in his day is it completed, And his bending branch is not green.

He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive.

For the company of the profane is gloomy, And fire hath consumed tents of bribery.

Evil has made them with child, and they give birth to trouble; and the fruit of their body is shame for themselves.

Is there an end to words of wind? Or what doth embolden thee that thou answerest?

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.

Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased?

And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.

His anger teareth and pursueth me; he gnasheth with his teeth against me; as mine adversary he sharpeneth his eyes at me.

GOD doth abandon me to him that is perverse, and, into the hands of the lawless, he throweth me headlong.

"I was at ease, then he broke me in two, and he seized [me] by my neck; then he shattered me and set me up as a target for him.

“His arrows surround me.
He pierces my kidneys (vital organs) without mercy;
He pours out my gall on the ground.

He breaketh me -- breach upon breach, He runneth upon me as a mighty one.

“I have sewed sackcloth over my skin [as a sign of mourning]
And have defiled my horn (symbol of strength) in the dust.

My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

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

Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.

My interpreter is my friend, Unto God hath mine eye dropped:

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 ready for me.

{Surely} mockery [is] with me, and my eye {rests} on their provocation.

Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?

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

He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.

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

The upright are surprised at this, and he who has done no wrong is troubled because of the evil-doers.

Yet the righteous person will hold to his way,
and the one whose hands are clean will grow stronger.

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

My days are past, my plans are broken off, as are the thoughts of my heart.

They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.

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

And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?

They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.

How long will it be before you have done talking? Get wisdom, and then we will say what is in our minds.

Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your sight?

(He is tearing himself in his anger.) For thy sake is earth forsaken? And removed is a rock from its place?

Also, the light of the wicked is extinguished. And there doth not shine a spark of his fire.

The light hath been dark in his tent, And his lamp over him is extinguished.

His powerful stride is shortened,
and his own schemes trip him up.

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

His foot is taken in the net; he comes into its grip.

The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.

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

His strength is hunger-bitten, and calamity is ready at his side.

His skin is wasted by disease, and his body is food for the worst of diseases.

Drawn from his tent is his confidence, And it causeth him to step to the king of terrors.

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

From beneath his roots are dried up, And from above cut off is his crop.

His remembrance perishes from [the] earth, and [there is] not a name for him on [the] street.

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

He hath no continuator, Nor successor among his people, And none is remaining in his dwellings.

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

Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.

And what is more, [if] I have truly erred, my error remains with me.

If you really want to appear superior to me
and would use my disgrace as evidence against me,

then understand that it is God who has wronged me
and caught me in His net.

Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.

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

He breaketh me down on every side, and I am gone; and my hope hath he torn up as a tree.

He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.

He hath put my brethren far away from me, and such as were of mine acquaintance, are become strangers unto me.

The sojourners in my house and my maids count me as a stranger; I am an alien in their sight.

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

All such as were my most familiars, abhor me: And they whom I loved best, are turned against me.

My bone hangeth to my skin, and my flesh is away; there is left me only the skin about my teeth.

Have pity on me, have pity on me, O my friends! for the hand of God is on me.

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

But as for me I know that my Redeemer liveth, And at last he will stand up upon the earth: