“And if this is not so, who can prove me a liar
And make my speech worthless?”

"Power and fear is with him above, that maketh peace, sitting in his highness,

Is there any number of his armies? and upon whom doth not his light arise?

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

Lo, even the moon is not bright; and 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?

How hast thou helped him that is without power? how savest thou the arm that hath no strength?

How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom? and how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is?

To whom hast thou uttered words? and whose spirit came from thee?

Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering.

“It is He who spreads out the north over emptiness
And hangs the earth on nothing.

He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them.

By him the face of his high seat is veiled, and his cloud stretched out over it.

By him a circle is marked out on the face of the waters, to the limits of the light and the dark.

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

As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;

All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;

Truly, there is no deceit in my lips, and my tongue does not say what is false.

God forbid, that I should grant your cause to be right! As for me, until mine end come will I never go from my innocence.

My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

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

For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?

Will his cry come to the ears of God when he is in trouble?

I will teach you by the hand of God: that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal.

Lo, ye -- all of you -- have seen, And why is this -- ye are altogether vain?

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

If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword: and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay;

He may get them ready, but the upright will put them on, and he who is free from sin will take the silver for a heritage.

He buildeth his house as a moth, and as a booth that the keeper maketh.

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

Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night.

The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth: and as a storm hurleth him out of his place.

For it hurls at him, and does not spare, as he flees away from his hand.

but it will clap its hands over him, hissing at him as it lunges toward him."

Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they fine it.

Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone.

An end hath he set to darkness, And to all perfection he is searching, A stone of darkness and death-shade.

He sinks his shaft far from human habitations, in a place forgotten by explorers; they hang on harnesses as they swing back and forth.

As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire.

a place whose stones are sapphires and which contains dust of gold;

There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen:

Rivers flow out of the rocks, and look: what is pleasant, his eye seeth it.

He bindeth the floods from overflowing; and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.

But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?

Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living.

The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me.

Gold is not given for it, Nor is silver weighed -- its price.

It is not set in the balance with gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, and the sapphire.

Not equal it do gold and crystal, Nor is its exchange a vessel of fine gold.

No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies.

Not equal it doth the topaz of Cush, With pure gold it is not valued.

Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?

Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.

“God understands the way [to wisdom]
And He knows its place [for wisdom is with God alone].

For he looks as far as the ends of the earth and sees everything under the sky.

Then He saw wisdom and declared it;
He established it and searched it out.

And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.

Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;

When his lamp shone over my head, by whose light, I could go through darkness;

As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle;

When yet the Mighty One is with me. Round about me -- my young ones,

When washing my goings with butter, And the firm rock is with me rivulets of oil.

When the young men, as soon as they saw me, hid themselves, and when the aged arose, and stood up unto me;

"As soon as the ear heard these things, it blessed me, and when the eye saw them, it bore witness to me,

For I deliver the afflicted who is crying, And the fatherless who hath no helper.

I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.

I served as eyes for the blind and feet for the lame.

A father, was, I, to the needy, and, as for the cause which I knew not, I used to search it out;

Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.

My root is spread out to the waters, And the dew lieth all night upon my branch;

My glory is fresh in me, And my bow is renewed in my hand.

"They listened and waited for me, as they remained in silence for my counsel.

And they waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.

I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth the mourners.

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

Yea, the strength of their hands, whereto should it profit me? Men in whom ripe age is perished.

They are wasted for need of food, biting the dry earth; their only hope of life is in the waste land.

Those cropping mallows near a shrub, And broom-roots is their food.

They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;)

They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.

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

And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.

The flesh is gone from my bones, and they give me no rest; there is no end to my pains.

By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.

I am even as it were clay, and am become like ashes and dust.

You have become cruel to me; the strength of your hand is hard on me.

you carried me off in a wind storm, making me ride on it while you toss me about as the storm roars around me.

Sure I am, that thou wilt deliver me unto death: whereas a lodging is prepared for all men living.

"Surely someone must not send a hand against [the] needy when, in his misfortune, [there is] a cry of help for them.

Did not I weep for him whose days were hard? was not my soul grieved for the needy?

My heart is troubled, and resteth not; Days of affliction are come upon me.

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

My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.

For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?

Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?

If my steps have been turned out of the way, or if my heart went after my eyes, or if the property of another is in my hands;

Then let my wife give pleasure to another man and let others make use of her body.

For this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.

For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.