the presence of water will make it to bud so that it sprouts new branches like a young plant.

O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!

You'll call and I'll answer you; you'll long for your creatures that your hands have made.

Water wears away stones; floods wash away topsoil from the land but you destroy the hope of human beings just like that!

Thou prevailest against him, so that he passeth away; thou changes his estate, and puttest him from thee.

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

Truly, you make the fear of God without effect, so that the time of quiet worship before God is made less by your outcry.

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.

Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made 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 too small for thee, Even the word that is gentle toward thee?

That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth?

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

How much less one that is abominable and corrupt, A man that drinketh iniquity like water!

I will shew thee, hear me; and that which I have seen I will declare;

what wise men have told, and they have not hidden [that which is] from their ancestors,

unto whom only the land was given, that no stranger should come among them.

The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, Even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

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.

And he dwelleth in desolate cities, in houses that no man inhabiteth, which are destined to become heaps.

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

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

Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?

I could speak as ye do also. But would God, that your soul were in my soul's stead: then should I heap up words against you, and shake my head at you.

But now that God hath sent me adversity, thou hast troubled all my congregation.

And that thou hast filled me with wrinkles, my flesh is witness; and my leanness riseth up against me and beareth witness thereof in my face.

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

Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, And he that voucheth for me is on high.

And, he that voucheth for me is on high. My friends are, they who scorn me, Unto GOD, hath mine eye shed tears: -

O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!

For the years that lie ahead are few, and then I will go on the way of no return.

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

He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.

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

“These [thoughts try to] make the night into the day;
‘The light is near,’ they say in the presence of darkness [but they pervert the truth].

"If my hope were that my house is the afterlife itself, if I were to make 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],’

What helpeth then my long tarrying? Or, who will fulfill the thing that I look for?

Will it go down to the bars that lock the doors of the afterlife? Will we descend together into the dust?"

Thou that tearest thyself in thine anger, Shall the earth be forsaken for thee? Or shall the rock be removed out of its place?

"He is petrified by terror that surrounds him on all sides; they chase at his heels.

There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his: Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.

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.

These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to 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;

Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.

He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.

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

They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.

Why are you chasing me, as God has been doing? Aren't you satisfied that I'm sick?

Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!

That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!

For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

that I shall be clothed again with this skin, and see God in my flesh.

If ye say, How we will persecute him! And that the root of the matter is found in me;

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 discipline that insults me, and a spirit beyond my understanding answers me.

Knowest thou not this, that of old, since man was placed upon earth,

That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?

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

Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: They that have seen him shall say, Where is he?

He vanisheth as a dream, so that he can no more be found, and passeth away as a vision in the night.

[The] eye [that] saw him {will not see him again}, and his place will no longer behold him.

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

His bones were full of his youthful vigor, but that vigor will lie down with him in the dust.

That he favoured, that would he not forsake; but kept it close in his throat.

The bread that he did eat is turned to the poison of serpents, within his body.

The wealth that he consumed he vomits up, God will make him throw it out of his stomach.

so that he shall no more see the rivers, and brooks of honey and butter.

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.

For he hath oppressed, hath forsaken the poor; he hath violently taken away a house that he did not build.

Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.

There was nothing left that he devoured not; Therefore his prosperity shall not endure.

In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: The hand of every one that is in misery 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.

so that if he flee the iron weapons, he shall be shot with the steel bow.

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 substance that he hath in his house, shall be taken away and perish, in the day of the LORD's wrath.

This is what the wicked person inherits from God; it is the inheritance that God appoints for him."

Suffer me that I may speak; and after that I have spoken, mock on.

Is it with a man, that I make this disputation? Which if it were so, should not my spirit be then in sore trouble?

Their bullock gendereth, and that not out of time: their cow calveth, and is not unfruitful.

What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?

How oft is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity cometh upon them? That God distributeth sorrows in his anger?

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

Ye say , God layeth up his iniquity for his children. Let him recompense it unto himself, that he may know it:

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

Have ye not asked them that go by the way? and do ye not know their tokens,

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

Who doth declare to his face his way? And for that which he hath done, Who doth give recompence to him?

Why then do you give me comfort with words in which there is no profit, when you see that there is nothing in your answers but deceit?

Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?

Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? or is it gain to him, that thou makest thy ways perfect?

Is it for thy fear of him that he reproveth thee, That he entereth with thee into judgment?