¹There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. And that man was integrous and upright, who feared God and departed from evil. ²And there were born to him seven sons and three daughters. ³And his possessions consisted of seven thousand sheep and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses, and he had a very great body of servants. And this man was greater than all other men of the east. ⁴And his sons organized a feast at home, each on his own day, and they sent messengers and invited their three sisters to come and eat and drink with them. ⁵And it came to pass, when the days of the feast came round, that Job sent instructions and sanctified them, and he rose early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of all of them, for Job said, “Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their heart.” Job did this every day. ⁶Now the day came when the sons of God came to stand before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. ⁷And the Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” And Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” ⁸And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, for there is no-one like him on the earth – an integrous and upright man fearing God and departing from evil.” ⁹Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Is it for nothing that Job fears God? ¹⁰Have you not hedged him in with his household, and everything he has, all around? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. ¹¹But now, just put out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will certainly curse you to your face.” ¹²Then the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, everything he has is in your hand, only do not put your hand out to him.” And Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. ¹³And the day came, while his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine at the house of their firstborn brother, ¹⁴when a messenger came to Job, who said, “The oxen were ploughing, and the she-asses were feeding next to them, ¹⁵when the Sabaeans attacked them and took them and struck the servant-lads with the blade of the sword, and only I escaped to tell you.” ¹⁶While this man was still speaking, another came and said, “A very great fire fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servant-lads, and it consumed them, and only I escaped to tell you.” ¹⁷While this man was still speaking, another came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three contingents, and they raided the camels and took them, and they struck the servant-lads with the blade of the sword, and only I escaped to tell you.” ¹⁸While this man was still speaking, another came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their firstborn brother, ¹⁹when a great wind came from across the desert and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the lads, and they died, and only I have escaped to tell you.” ²⁰Then Job rose and tore his coat and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshipped, ²¹and he said,

“Naked I came out of my mother's womb,

And naked I will return there.

The Lord has given,

And the Lord has taken;

Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

²²Despite all this, Job did not sin, and he did not charge God with foolishness.

¹And the day came when the sons of God came to stand before the Lord, and Satan came too among them to stand before the Lord. ²And the Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” And Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth and walking up and down on it.” ³Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, for there is no-one like him on the earth, an integrous and upright man, fearing God and departing from evil, and still maintaining his integrity? But you have moved me against him, to swallow him up for no reason.” ⁴At this Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin, and everything a man has, he will give for his life. ⁵But just put out your hand and strike his bones and his flesh, and he will certainly curse you to your face.” ⁶Then the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand, but guard his life.” ⁷And Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and he struck Job with sore ulcers, from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. ⁸And Job took an earthenware shard with which to scrape himself, and he sat in ashes. ⁹And his wife said to him, “Do you still hold on to your integrity? Curse God and die.” ¹⁰And he said to her, “You are talking the way one of the irreverent women would. Shall we receive good from God, and not also receive evil?” Despite all this, Job did not sin with his lips. ¹¹Then when three of Job's friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came, each one from his place: Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. And they agreed together to go and console him and comfort him. ¹²And they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and they did not recognize him, and they raised their voices and wept, and each one tore his coat, and they sprinkled dust on their heads, throwing it towards the sky. ¹³And they sat with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights, and no-one said anything to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.

¹After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed his day. ²And Job began to speak and said,

³“May the day on which I was born perish,

And the night when it was said,

‘A man has been fathered.’

⁴May that day be darkness,

May God not care for it above,

And may no light shine on it.

⁵May darkness and the shadow of death stain it,

May a cloud rest on it;

Let daytime darkenings overwhelm it.

⁶May gloom take that night,

May it not be included in the days of the year;

May it not enter into the number of the months.

⁷Behold, may that night be barren;

May no rejoicing enter into it.

⁸May those who curse a day denounce it

– Those who are prepared to arouse Leviathan.

⁹May its twilight stars be darkened;

May it wait for light and there not be any,

And may it not see the aura of dawn.

¹⁰For it did not shut the gates of my mother's womb,

Nor did it hide sorrow from my eyes.

¹¹Why did I not die in the womb?

Why did I not come out of the belly and expire?

¹²Why did knees prepare for me?

And why were there breasts for me to suck?

¹³For then I would now be lying down and be undisturbed;

For then I would be asleep and at rest,

¹⁴With kings and counsellors of the earth

Who built monuments now ruins for themselves,

¹⁵Or with princes who had gold,

Who filled their houses with silver,

¹⁶Or as a miscarriage that needs to be buried,

So that I would not now exist,

Like infants who never saw light.

¹⁷There, the wicked cease raging,

And there, those wearied by effort find rest,

¹⁸Together with prisoners who are at ease;

They do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.

¹⁹Whether small or great, there he is,

And the servant, free from his master.

²⁰Why does he give light to the wretched,

And life to those who are melancholic?

²¹– Who are waiting for death

But it does not come?

– Who search for it more earnestly than for hidden treasures?

²²– Who are happy, exultant even,

As they rejoice when they find the grave?

²³Why does he give light to a man whose way is hidden,

Around whom God has put a hedge?

²⁴For my sighing comes to the forefront more than my bread,

And my groaning is uttered voluminously.

²⁵For the thing which I greatly feared has befallen me,

And that which I was afraid of has come upon me.

²⁶I am not in comfort

And not in quietude

And not at rest,

For trouble has come.”

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

²“If we offer you some words,

Will you take offence?

For to withhold words

– Who can do it?

³Look, you have instructed many

And strengthened weak hands.

⁴Your words have lifted up him who was stumbling,

And you have strengthened failing knees.

⁵But now it has come upon you,

And you take offence;

It has touched you,

And you are agitated.

⁶Is not your godly fear your confidence?

And is not the integrity of your ways your hope?

⁷Remember, please, who being innocent ever perished?

And where were the innocent ever annihilated?

⁸According to what I have seen,

Those who plough falsehood and sow iniquity

Reap it again.

⁹By the breath of God they perish,

And by the blast of his nostrils they are destroyed.

¹⁰The roaring of the lion

And the sound of the fierce lion

And the teeth of the young lions

Are knocked out.

¹¹The old lion perishes for want of prey,

And the whelps of the strong lion are scattered.

¹²And a word has come furtively to me,

And my ear has picked up a whisper of it,

¹³In the thoughts from the visions of the night,

When slumber falls on men.

¹⁴Dread came upon me, and trembling,

And filled the bulk of my bones with foreboding.

¹⁵And a spirit passed by my face,

And the hair on my flesh bristled up.

¹⁶It stood still,

But I could not recognize its appearance;

It was an image before my eyes.

There was silence,

Then I heard a voice, which said,

¹⁷‘Can man be more righteous than God?

Or can a man be more pure than his maker?’

¹⁸Behold, he does not put trust in his servants,

And he charges his angels with folly.

¹⁹How much less does he trust dwellers in houses of mortar,

Whose foundation is in the dust?

They could be crushed more easily than a moth.

²⁰From morning to evening they could be pounded

Without anyone ever caring

That they had perished.

²¹Would their illustriousness not be removed?

They would die,

And not in wisdom.

¹Call now and see if there is anyone who answers you.

And to which of the holy ones will you turn?

²For wrath kills the foolish man,

And jealousy causes the simple-minded man to die.

³I have seen the foolish taking root,

But I suddenly realized how his home would be.

⁴His sons are far from salvation

And are crushed at the gate,

And there is no-one to deliver them,

⁵Whose harvest the hungry will eat,

Which they will take from among the thorns,

As destruction swallows up their wealth.

⁶Although sorrow does not come out of the soil,

And wretchedness does not sprout from the ground,

⁷Yet man is born to face toil,

As surely as sparks fly upward.

⁸But I would seek God,

And with God I would set out my case.

⁹He performs great deeds

Of which there is no searching out

– Wonders of which there is no limit.

¹⁰He provides rain on the surface of the earth,

And he sends water onto the surface of the open places.

¹¹He sets the lowly on high,

So that those who mourn are exalted in salvation,

¹²Frustrating the thoughts of the crafty,

So that their hands cannot perform with competence,

So that the counsel of the deceitful is forestalled.

¹⁴By day they meet with darkness,

And as at night, so they grope at noon.

¹⁵But he saves the poor from the sword

– From their blade –

And from the hand of the strong,

¹⁶So that the lowly have hope,

And injustice shuts its mouth.

¹⁷Behold, blessed is the man whom God reproves,

So do not reject the correction of the Almighty,

¹⁸For he causes pain,

But he binds up again;

He bruises,

But his hands heal again.

¹⁹He will deliver you from six adversities,

And in seven no harm will touch you.

²⁰In famine he will save you from death,

And in war, from the power of the sword.

²¹You will be hidden from the scourge of slander,

And you will not fear devastation

If it comes.

²²You will laugh at devastation and starvation,

And you will not be afraid of the beasts of the earth.

²³For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field,

And the wild beasts will be at peace with you.

²⁴And you will know that your tent is at peace,

And when you check your tent,

You will not miss anything.

²⁵And you will know that your seed is many,

And your offspring is as the grass of the earth.

²⁶You will go to the grave in ripe old age,

Like the gathering in of a stack of corn in its season.

²⁷Behold this account;

We have searched it out

– It is so.

Hear it and know it,

For your own sake.”

Reference(s) in Chapter 5: v.13 ↔ 1 Corinthians 3:19.

¹Then Job answered and said,

²“If only my grief were thoroughly weighed

And my hardship were laid in the scales together with it.

³For now it is heavier than the sand of the sea,

Which is why my words are wild.

⁴For the Almighty's arrows are in me

– My spirit has to drink their payload;

The terrors of God are arrayed against me.

⁵Does the wild ass bray over grass,

Or does the ox low over its fodder?

⁶Is bland food eaten without salt,

Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

⁷I have no appetite for such things;

They are my uninviting food.

⁸If only my request might be considered,

And that God would grant my wish.

⁹If God were to be pleased to crush me,

To loosen his grip

And to cut me off,

¹⁰It would nevertheless be comfort to me,

And I would endure in writhing,

Which he would not spare,

For I have not concealed the holy one's words.

¹¹What strength do I have,

That I should have hope?

And what is my final condition,

That I should prolong my life?

¹²Is my strength the strength of stones?

Is my flesh brazen?

¹³Is it not the case that I have no help in my own resources?

– And that competence has been driven away from me?

¹⁴To him who is in low spirits,

Kindness is due from his friend,

Even if he has abandoned fear of the Almighty.

¹⁵But my brothers have acted treacherously

Like a torrent,

Then like torrent tributaries,

They vanished.

¹⁶They are inhospitable, because of ice,

And in them snow is hidden.

¹⁷When they are exposed to scorching conditions,

They vanish;

In the heat,

They dry up on the spot.

¹⁸Their course is brought to a standstill;

They evaporate and are lost.

¹⁹The travelling companies of Tema looked on;

The caravans of Sheba put hope in them,

²⁰But they were put to shame

For where each put his trust.

They arrived there

And were confounded.

²¹For now you are no comfort;

You see a terrible thing

And are afraid.

²²Did I say, ‘Give me support’?

Or, ‘Offer me some of your wealth’?

²³Or, ‘Deliver me from the clutches of adversity’?

Or, ‘Redeem me from the grip of fierce men’?

²⁴Teach me,

And I will be silent,

And cause me to understand

In what way I have erred.

²⁵How forcible words of uprightness are,

And how strongly reproving your reproof is!

²⁶Do you think you have reproved my words?

Or scattered to the wind the words of one in despair?

²⁷Indeed, you cast down orphans

And undermine your neighbour.

²⁸So now, be willing to turn to me,

And it will be evident to you

If I lie.

²⁹Reconsider, I pray,

Let there be no more injustice.

And reconsider also

Whether I am right about this.

³⁰Is there any injustice in my tongue?

Can my palate not discern perverse things?”

¹“Does man not have warfare here on earth?

And are not his days like the days of a hired labourer?

²As a servant pants for shade,

And as a hired labourer awaits the wages of his work,

³So I am made to endure months of calamity,

And nights of sorrow are appointed to me.

⁴Whenever I lie down, I say,

‘When will it be time for me to get up,

And the night be over?’

For I am full of restlessness

Until the morning twilight.

⁵My flesh is clothed in worms and clods of earth;

My skin breaks up and wastes away.

⁶My days pass more swiftly than a weaver's shuttle,

And they are spent without any hope.

⁷Remember that my life is but wind;

My eye shall not see goodness again.

⁸The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more,

But your eyes will be on me,

Though I will be no more.

⁹As the cloud dissipates and vanishes,

So he who goes down to the grave

Does not ascend again.

¹⁰He does not return again to his house,

And his home place will not welcome him again.

¹¹But I too will not hold back my mouth,

I will speak in the distress of my spirit;

I will lament in the bitterness of my feelings.

¹²Am I the sea, or a sea-monster,

So that you should set a watch over me?

¹³For I have said,

‘My bed will comfort me;

My couch will ease my complaint’,

¹⁴But you terrify me in dreams

And frighten me with visions.

¹⁵My being would prefer suffocation;

It would prefer death to my intact body.

¹⁶I reject life;

I will not live on.

Leave me,

For my days are pointless.

¹⁷What is man,

That you should make him great?

– Or that you should set your heart on him?

¹⁸But you visit him every morning

And test him every moment.

¹⁹How long will you ignore me

And persist with me

Until I swallow my spittle?

²⁰I have sinned

– What can I do to you, O guardian of man?

Why have you made me an object of confrontation with you,

So that I am a burden to you?

²¹And why do you not pardon my transgression

And forgive my iniquity?

For now I shall lie down on the dust,

And you will seek me diligently,

But I will not be there.”

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite began to speak and said,

²“How long will you declaim these things?

And the words of your mouth are a great wind.

³Does God pervert justice?

Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?

⁴What if your sons sinned against him,

And he has cast them out for their transgressions?

⁵If you would seek God diligently,

And make supplication to the Almighty,

⁶If you were pure and upright,

Then he would now bestir himself for you

And keep your righteous dwelling place safe.

⁷And however much your beginning may have been a small matter,

Yet your final situation would become very great.

⁸For inquire, I pray you, of a former generation,

And establish it by investigation of their fathers.

⁹For we are of yesterday,

And we do not know much at all,

For our days are just a shadow on the earth.

¹⁰Will they not teach you

And speak to you

And bring out words from their heart?

¹¹Do papyrus plants grow without a swamp?

Does bulrush grow without water?

¹²While it is still in tender greenness,

It is not plucked away.

But it dries up quicker than any other kind of grass.

¹³So are the paths of all who forget God,

And the hope of the profane comes to nothing.

¹⁴Their hope is cut off,

And their object of trust turns out to be a spider's cobweb.

¹⁵When he leans on his house,

It will not stand;

He will hold it fast,

But it will not stand firm.

¹⁶As a tree which is moist in the sun,

Whose young shoot sprouts in its garden,

¹⁷Whose roots are intertwined at the water-source,

Which looks down on a house of stone,

¹⁸If anyone uproots it from its place,

The place will disown the tree, and say,

‘I do not care for you.’

¹⁹Behold, that would be the end of its joyful course,

And other plants would grow from its soil.

²⁰Behold, God does not reject those of integrity,

And he does not hold the hand of evildoers.

²¹If you would seek God diligently,

God would not rest

Until he fills your mouth with laughter,

And your lips with a shout for joy.

²²Those who hate you would be clothed in shame,

And the tent of the wicked would no longer exist.”

¹Then Job replied and said,

²“Indeed I know it is so,

But how can a man be just with God?

³If he were to be pleased to contend with him,

The man could not answer one question out of a thousand.

⁴Who, however wise of heart and mighty in strength,

Ever hardened himself against him

And came off well?

⁵He removes mountains,

But they are unaware of it,

And he overturns them in his anger.

⁶He shakes the earth out of its place,

So that its pillars tremble.

⁷He commands the sun

And it does not rise,

And he sets a seal around the stars.

⁸He stretches out the heavens on his own,

And he treads on the heights of the sea.

⁹He made the Great Bear and Orion,

And the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.

¹⁰He performs great deeds

Which are beyond searching out,

And wonders which are without number.

¹¹Behold, he passes me by,

But I do not see him.

He goes past,

But I do not perceive him.

¹²Behold, when he seizes something,

Who can make him return it?

Who can say to him,

‘What are you doing?’

¹³If God does not avert his anger,

Minions of pride must stoop before him.

¹⁴How much less can I answer him?

How could I choose my words in dispute with him?

¹⁵– When even if I were just,

I would not answer;

I would make my supplication to my judge.

¹⁶Even if I called him, and he answered me,

I would not believe that he had heard my voice.

¹⁷He could crush me with a storm

And multiply my wounds without a cause.

¹⁸He would not allow me to recover my breath,

For he would fill me with bitter things.

¹⁹If it is a matter of strength,

Behold, he is mighty.

And if of justice,

Who will appoint me a hearing?

²⁰If I were to say, ‘I am justified’,

My mouth would be condemning me.

If I were to say, ‘I have integrity’,

It would convict me of perverseness.

²¹If I were to say, ‘I have integrity’,

I would not recognize myself;

I would loathe my life.

²²It is all the same.

That is why I claim,

‘He makes an end of the integrous and wicked alike.’

²³If a scourge suddenly kills,

It makes a mockery of the trial of the innocent.

²⁴The earth has been delivered into the hand of the wicked one;

He has put a veil over the faces of its judges.

If it is not so,

Who, then, is he who is responsible?”

²⁵“Now my days pass more swiftly than a runner.

They fly past;

They do not see goodness.

²⁶They pass with the speed of papyrus boats,

As an eagle swoops after prey.

²⁷If I were to say,

‘I will forget my complaint;

I will ignore my situation

And be cheerful’,

²⁸I would be fearful with all my sorrows;

I would know

That you still wouldn't pronounce me innocent.

²⁹Let me be considered wicked.

Why, then, do I go on struggling in vain?

³⁰If I were to wash myself in snow

And purify my hands with soap,

³¹Then you would still plunge me into the pit,

And even my garments would abhor me.”

³²“For he is not a man like me,

That I should be able to answer him, and say,

‘Let us go together to the court of justice.’

³³There is no arbiter between us,

Who could put his hand on us both.

³⁴Let him take away his rod from me,

And let him not frighten me with his terror.

³⁵Then I would speak and not fear him,

But it is not so for me in my situation.

¹My being is weary of my life.

I will consign my complaint to myself.

I will speak in the bitterness of my feelings.

²I will say to God,

‘Do not condemn me.

Tell me what you are contending with me about.

³Is it good in your sight that you should oppress?

– That you should reject the work of your hands?

– And that you should shine on the counsel of the wicked?

⁴Have you got eyes of flesh?

Do you see as man sees?

⁵Are your days like the days of mankind?

Are your years like the days of a man,

⁶When you seek my iniquity

And search for my sin?

⁷You know that I do not act wickedly,

But there is no-one to deliver me out of your hand.

⁸Your hands took pains to fashion me,

Yet all around, you swallow me up.

⁹Remember, I pray, that you fashioned me as with clay,

And that you will return me to the dust.

¹⁰Did you not pour me out like milk

And solidify me like cheese?

¹¹You clothed me in skin and flesh

And wove me together with bones and sinews.

¹²You have granted me life and shown me kindness,

And your watchfulness has guarded my spirit,

¹³Yet you have hidden these things in your heart.

I know that this was your intention.

¹⁴If I were to sin,

You would observe me,

And you would not acquit me from my iniquity.

¹⁵If I have acted wickedly,

Woe is me.

If I have been righteous,

I will not lift my head.

I am full of ingloriousness;

Just look at my affliction.

¹⁶For it is increasing;

You hunt me like a fierce lion

And again use wondrous powers against me.

¹⁷You renew your testimonies against me

And increase your anger with me.

And a succession of forces is against me.

¹⁸And why did you bring me out of the womb?

I could have expired,

And no eye would have seen me.

¹⁹I would be as though I had not existed;

I would have been led from the womb to the grave.’

²⁰Are not my days few?

If only he would desist and turn away from me,

Then I would be a little more cheerful

²¹Before I go (and do not return)

To the land of darkness and the shadow of death

²²– A land of weariness like deep darkness,

And of the shadow of death,

Where no order reigns,

And where it shines deep darkness.”

¹Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said,

²“Shall a profusion of words not be answered?

And is a loquacious man necessarily right?

³Will your lies silence men?

Or will you mock,

With no-one putting you to shame?

⁴For you have said,

‘My doctrine is pure’,

And, ‘I have been clean in your eyes.’

⁵But if only God would speak

And open his lips with you

⁶And tell you the secrets of wisdom,

For they double the value of insight.

And know that God exacts retribution for your iniquity.

⁷Can you find God with an investigation?

Or can you find the Almighty with complete knowledge?

⁸What can you undertake concerning the heights of heaven?

What can you know about what is deeper than the underworld?

⁹Its dimensions are longer than the earth

And wider than the sea.

¹⁰If he passes by,

And confines and gathers people up,

Who can make him withdraw it?

¹¹For he knows who the vain men are,

And he sees their wickedness

Although he does not appear attentive.

¹²But a witless man can become wise,

For a man is born like a wild ass.

¹³If you prepare your heart,

Then you can stretch out your hands to him.

¹⁴If there is vanity in your hands,

Remove it,

And do not let iniquity dwell in your tents.

¹⁵For then you will be able to hold your head high spotlessly,

And you will be steadfast,

And you will not need to fear.

¹⁶For then you will forget your sorrow

And remember it as you do water that passes by.

¹⁷A time will come brighter than noon.

You will soar;

You will be like the morning.

¹⁸You will trust,

For you will have hope,

And you will search matters out

And rest with confidence.

¹⁹And you will lie down

With nothing to cause alarm,

And many will seek your favour.

²⁰But the eyes of the wicked will fail,

And flight will not be available to them,

And their hope will be as a puff of breath.”

¹Then Job answered and said,

²“Truly, you constitute a people.

But your wisdom will die with you.

³But I also have intellect like you;

I am not inferior to you.

And who is not familiar with such things?

⁴I am an object of scorn to my neighbour

– One calling to God for him to answer him.

A just and integrous man is an object of scorn.

⁵A lamp is an object of contempt to the thoughts of him who is at ease,

Although it is prepared for those who are liable to stumble.

⁶The tents of the plunderers are at ease,

And those who provoke God have confidence

In what God brings in his hand.

⁷But ask, I pray, the beasts,

And each will teach you,

And the birds of the sky,

And they will inform you.

⁸Or speak to the earth

And it will teach you,

And the fish of the sea will recount it to you.

⁹Who does not know by means of all these

That the hand of the Lord has done this?

¹⁰– In whose hand the existence of every living being is,

And the spirit of all human flesh.

¹¹Does not the ear discern the sense of words,

And the palate taste food?

¹²In the elderly is wisdom,

And in great age is understanding.

¹³With him there is wisdom and mastery;

He has counsel and understanding.

¹⁴Behold, he demolishes a building

So that it cannot be built up.

¹⁵Behold, he shuts off water,

And it dries up,

And when he sends it again,

It overturns the earth.

¹⁶He has strength and insight;

He has dominion over him who goes astray

And him who leads astray.

¹⁷He leads counsellors stripped of honour,

And he makes a fool of judges.

¹⁸He dissolves the punishment inflicted by kings,

And he binds a girdle around their waist.

¹⁹He leads priests stripped of office,

And he overthrows the mighty.

²⁰He removes the eloquence of the confident orator,

And he deposes the discernment of the elders.

²¹He pours contempt on dignitaries,

And he loosens the girdle of the mighty.

²²He uncovers deep things from darkness,

And he brings the shadow of death into the light.

²³He makes nations great

Then brings them to ruin;

He lets nations expand

Then leads them back.

²⁴He removes reason from the chiefs of the various peoples of the earth

And causes them to wander in desolation,

Where there is no thoroughfare.

²⁵They grope in the dark,

Where there is no light,

And he causes them to wander

Like a drunkard.

Reference(s) in Chapter 12: v.14 ↔ Revelation 3:7.

¹Behold, my eye has seen everything;

My ear has heard it

And understood it.

²What you know,

I know too.

I am not inferior to you.

³But I would like to speak to the Almighty,

And I desire to reason with God.

⁴But you are fabricators of falsehood;

You are all physicians of no value.

⁵If only you would altogether keep silence;

For it would be wisdom to you.

⁶Hear, I pray, my reasoning,

And hearken to the contentions of my lips.

⁷Will you speak iniquitously to God ?

And speak deceitfully to him?

⁸Will you show partiality with him?

Or contend with God?

⁹Is it right that he should investigate you?

Or will you mock him as one mocks a man?

¹⁰He will certainly reprove you

If you secretly show partiality.

¹¹Will not his exalted position alarm you

And his fear fall upon you?

¹²Your weighty sayings are proverbs of ashes;

Your defences are defences of clay.

¹³Stop talking to me,

And I will speak.

Then let come what may

Come on me.

¹⁴Why do I take my flesh in my teeth

And put my life in my hands?

¹⁵ Look, I do not expect him to kill me,

But I will contend for my ways before him.

¹⁶He is also my salvation,

For no profane person can come into his presence.

¹⁷Hear my words attentively,

And heed my arguments in your ears.

¹⁸Look, I pray, I have set out my case;

I know I shall be justified.”

¹⁹“Who is it who would contend with me?

For if I now keep silence,

I will expire.

²⁰But avoid doing two things to me,

Then I need not be hidden from your presence.

²¹Remove your hand from me,

And do not alarm me with your foreboding.

²²Then call, and I will answer,

Or I will speak, and you can answer me.

²³How many iniquities and sins have I committed?

Make my transgression and my sin known to me.

²⁴Why do you hide your face

And consider me to be your enemy?

²⁵Will you put fear into a leaf

That is driven about?

Or will you pursue dry chaff?

²⁶For you indict me with bitter things,

And you load on me the iniquities of my youth,

²⁷Putting my feet in the stocks,

And watching all my paths closely,

And imprinting a mark on the soles of my feet,

²⁸Each of which wastes away like rot,

As a moth eats a garment.

¹Man, born of woman, is of few days,

And has his fill of trouble.

²He is as a flower that comes out

Then is cut off.

And he flees as a shadow

And does not stand in place.

³Nevertheless, you open your eyes on such a one

And bring me to judgment with you.

⁴Who can make a clean thing

From an unclean one?

– No-one.

⁵If his days are determined,

If the number of his months is your decision,

If you have appointed his limit,

Then he cannot exceed them.

⁶Regard him with favour,

Rather than being against him,

So that he may rest

– So that he may take pleasure in his day,

As a hired man does.

⁷For a tree has hope,

If it is cut down,

That it may sprout again

And that its sucker will not fail,

⁸Even if its root in the ground has grown old,

And its felled trunk dies on the ground.

⁹From the smell of water it blossoms

And produces a harvest like a new plant.

¹⁰But a man dies and loses vitality;

A human being expires,

Then where is he?

¹¹As the water from the sea recedes,

And a river becomes desolate and dry,

¹²So a man lies down

And does not rise again

Until the heavens are no more.

They do not awaken,

And they do not rise from their sleep.

¹³If only you would hide me in the underworld

And conceal me until your anger abates

And appoint me a time

And then remember me.

¹⁴If a man dies,

Will he live again?

I will wait all the days of my struggle

For my revival to come.

¹⁵You will call,

And I will answer you.

You will yearn for the work of your hands.

¹⁶For now you can count my steps.

Are you not on guard concerning my sin?

¹⁷My transgression is sealed in a bag,

And you have sewn up my iniquity.

¹⁸But even a mountain can fall

And become waste,

And a rock can be removed from its place.

¹⁹Water wears down stones;

You sweep away with a flood the soil of the land,

And you destroy the hope of mortal man.

²⁰You overpower him for perpetuity,

And he passes away.

You change his appearance

And dismiss him.

²¹His sons may acquire honour,

But he would not know,

Or they could be disparaged,

But he would not be aware of their situation.

²²But meanwhile his flesh on him suffers pain,

And his inner self is in mourning.”

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

²“Does a wise man answer with knowledge which is nothing but hot air?

– Or does he fill his belly with the east wind?

³Does one argue with a word that is of no avail?

– Or with speeches in which there is no benefit?

⁴But you would even nullify fear

And minimize the dignity of colloquy with God.

⁵For your mouth spells out your iniquity,

And you choose crafty language.

⁶Your mouth condemns you

– Not I;

And your lips testify against you.

⁷Are you the first man to be born?

Were you brought forth before the hills?

⁸Have you heard the secret counsel of God?

Do you reserve wisdom to yourself?

⁹What do you know

That we don't know?

What do you understand

That we are not aware of?

¹⁰Amongst us are the elderly and aged,

Older than your father in days.

¹¹Are the consolations of God too small a matter for you?

And are you indifferent to the matter?

¹²How come your heart is carrying you away?

How come your eyes are winking?

¹³For you are turning your spirit against God

When you bring such words out of your mouth.

¹⁴What is man

That he should be pure,

And that he who is born of a woman

Should be just?

¹⁵Behold, he does not put trust in his holy ones,

And the heavens are not pure in his sight.

¹⁶How much less a man abhorred and corrupt

– A man who drinks iniquity like water.

¹⁷I will explain it to you;

Listen to me,

And I will declare

What I have seen

¹⁸– Things which wise men have told of

And have not hidden,

Handed down from their forefathers.

¹⁹To them alone the land was given,

And no stranger crossed through their midst.

²⁰A wicked person writhes in discomfort all his days,

And the number of years of a violent man is hidden.

²¹A fearful sound is in his ears;

In a peaceful time the plunderer will come upon him.

²²He does not believe he will return from darkness,

And he expects

To be destined for the sword.

²³He wanders around looking for where there is food;

He knows that the day of darkness is at hand.

²⁴Adversity and distress terrify him;

They prevail over him like a king ready for battle.

²⁵For he stretches out his hand against God,

And he behaves insolently against the Almighty.

²⁶He runs headlong against him

With thick bosses on his shields.

²⁷For he has covered his face with fatness

And put on flab around his waist.

²⁸So he will dwell in desolate cities,

Where houses are uninhabitable

– Which are on the point of becoming heaps of ruins.

²⁹He will not become rich,

And his wealth will not endure.

So riches of such will not increase on earth.

³⁰He does not depart from darkness.

A flame dries up his sucker,

And by the breath of his mouth he is removed.

³¹Let him who has been deceived not trust in vanity,

For vanity will be his recompense.

³²His time will be fulfilled before it is due,

And his branch will not be green.

³³He will be as a vine that shakes off its unripened grapes

And as an olive tree that casts off its blossom,

³⁴For the congregation of the profane is fruitless,

And fire will consume the tents of the corrupt.

³⁵They conceive sorrow

And give birth to worthlessness,

And their inner workings prepare deceit.”

¹Then Job answered and said,

²“I have heard many arguments like these;

You are all wearisome comforters.

³Is there an end to vain words?

Or what has stimulated you to answer like that?

⁴I too could speak like you,

If only your well-being was in place of my predicament.

I could heap up words against you,

And I could shake my head at you.

⁵Or I could strengthen you with my speech,

Or the utterance of my lips could give you relief.

⁶But when I speak,

My pain is not relieved,

And if I forbear,

In what way does my pain go away?”

⁷“But even now it is distressing me.

You have desolated all my family circle.

⁸And you have made my face wrinkly;

It is a witness.

And the fact that I have become very lean

Testifies to my face.”

⁹“In his wrath he tears me to pieces

And persecutes me.

He gnashes his teeth against me;

My adversary sharpens his eyes against me.

¹⁰People gape at me with their mouths;

They strike my cheek in reproach.

They act completely wantonly.

¹¹God has delivered me to the evil one,

And he has thrown me into the hands of the wicked.

¹²I was at ease,

But he shook me to pieces,

And he took me by the scruff of the neck

And dashed me to smithereens

And set me up as his target.

¹³His archers surround me;

He cleaves my kidneys apart

And does not spare.

He sheds my gall on the ground.

¹⁴He breaks me with rupture upon rupture;

He runs at me like a warrior.

¹⁵I have sewn sackcloth around my skin;

I have to roll my dignity in the dust.

¹⁶My face has become inflamed with weeping,

And the shadow of death is on my eyelids,

¹⁷Not for any violence on my hands,

And my prayer was pure.

¹⁸O earth, do not cover my blood,

And let there be no room for my cry.

¹⁹Even now, behold, my witness is in the heavens,

And he who testifies for me is in the high places.

²⁰Those who mock me are my friends;

My eye sheds tears to God

²¹That someone would plead on behalf of man with God,

As a son of Adam pleads on behalf of his friend.

²²For when a few years have come,

I shall go the way

From which I will not return.”

¹“My spirit is broken,

My days are extinguished;

The graves await me.

²There are certainly mockers all around me,

And my eye has to endure their provocation.

³Arrange an agreement, I pray;

Pledge yourself on my behalf.

Who else is there

Who will shake hands with me?

⁴For you have hidden understanding from their heart;

It being so, you will not exalt them.”

⁵“When a person betrays his friends for a share of spoils,

Even his sons' eyes fail in astonishment.

⁶But he has made me a byword of various nations,

And I have become one who is spat on.

⁷And my eye has grown dim with grief,

And all my limbs are as a shadow.

⁸The upright will be astonished at this,

And the innocent man will be stirred up against the profane.

⁹But the righteous will hold to his way,

And he who is of clean hands will increase in strength.

¹⁰But to all of them I say,

‘Return, and come, I pray,

For I do not find a single wise man among you.’

¹¹My days are passing;

My plans are dashed,

As are the thoughts of my heart.

¹²They appoint me night for day;

The light is short-lived because of darkness.

¹³If I have a hope,

The underworld is my home.

In darkness I will spread my bed.

¹⁴I call out to bodily decay,

‘You are my father’,

And to the worm,

‘You are my mother and my sister.’

¹⁵So where then is my hope?

And as for my hope, who will see it?

¹⁶You will descend by the litter-poles of the underworld

When with you I find rest in the dust.”

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,

²“How long will it be

Before you make an end of such words?

First gain understanding,

And afterwards, we will speak.

³Why are we counted as cattle?

Why are we defiled in your eyes?

⁴You are the one who tears himself apart in his anger.

Should the earth be forsaken for your sake?

– Or a rock be removed from its place?

⁵Truly, the light of the wicked will be extinguished,

And no flame of such a one's fire will shine.

⁶Light will become darkness in his tent,

And his lamp will be extinguished over him.

⁷His iniquitous steps will be repressed,

And his own counsel will cast him down.

⁸For he is hurled into a net by his own feet,

And he will walk into an entanglement.

⁹A snare will seize him by the heel;

A noose around him will hold him fast.

¹⁰The tripwire for him is hidden on the ground,

As is a trap for him on the pathway.

¹¹Terrors frighten him round about

And chase him around at his feet.

¹²Let his strength be exhausted

And destruction be prepared at his side.

¹³It will consume the fabric of his skin;

The firstborn of death will consume his members.

¹⁴His confidence will be plucked away from his tent,

And you will march him up to the king of terrors.

¹⁵Terror will dwell in his tent

Without him being able to do anything about it.

Sulphur will be scattered on his home.

¹⁶His roots will dry up below,

And his branches will be cut off above.

¹⁷The memory of him will perish from the land,

And he will have no reputation abroad.

¹⁸He will be driven from light to darkness;

He will be chased out of the world.

¹⁹He will have no posterity or progeny among his people,

And no survivor in his dwellings.

²⁰Those who come afterwards

Will be astonished at his fate,

Just as those who come before it

Will have taken fright at it.

²¹But these are the dwellings of the unjust,

And this is the place of him

Who does not know God.”

¹Then Job answered and said,

²“How long will you afflict my being

And crush me with your words?

³You have put me to shame these ten times

And are still not ashamed

That you alienate me like this.

⁴But even if it were true that I have erred,

My sense of error would remain with me.

⁵If you really will act proudly against me,

And argue against me on the grounds of my reproachful state,

⁶Know that God has overthrown me

And has cast his net around me.

⁷Behold, I call out,

‘It is wrong’,

But I am not answered.

I cry out,

But there is no process of judgment.

⁸He has fenced in my way

So that I cannot pass across,

And he has put darkness on my paths.

⁹He has stripped me of my honour,

And he has removed the crown from my head.

¹⁰He has demolished me all around,

And I have melted,

And he has removed my hope like a tree.

¹¹And he has kindled his wrath against me,

And he has considered me as one of his adversaries.

¹²His troops come together

And raise up their highway against me

And encamp around my tent.

¹³He has removed my brothers from me,

And my acquaintances are thoroughly estranged from me.

¹⁴My relatives have disowned me,

And my colleagues have forgotten me.

¹⁵Those who dwell in my house and my handmaids

Consider me a stranger;

I have become a foreigner in their sight.

¹⁶I call my servant,

But he does not answer;

I implore him with my instructions.

¹⁷My breath is loathsome to my wife,

And I am abominable to the sons of my loins.

¹⁸Even young children reject me;

When I appear,

They jeer at me.

¹⁹All the members of my secret counsel abhor me,

And they whom I loved have turned against me.

²⁰My bones cleave to my skin and flesh,

And I survive by the skin of my teeth.

²¹Have pity on me,

Have pity on me, my friends,

For the hand of God has struck me.

²²Why do you persecute me like God,

And why are you not satisfied with the state of my flesh?

²³If only my words could be written down now;

If only they could be inscribed in a book.

²⁴If only they could be engraved in rock in perpetuity,

With an iron stylus, and lead filled.

²⁵But I know that my redeemer lives,

And that in the end time he will appear on earth,

²⁶And that after my skin has been destroyed like this,

I will in my flesh yet behold God,

²⁷Whom I shall behold for myself,

And my eyes will see one

Who is not a stranger,

For whom my heart pines deeply.

²⁸For you will say,

‘Why did we persecute him?’

Is the root of the matter to be found in me?

²⁹Fear the sword,

For the punishments of the sword are full of fury,

In order that you may know that there is justice.”

¹Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said,

²“This is why my thoughts prompt me to answer,

And why I am hasty in doing so:

³I hear correction of my supposedly shameful stance,

And my discerning spirit gives me an answer.

⁴Do you not know this,

Known of olden time,

Since man was placed on the earth,

⁵That the rejoicing of the wicked is of short duration,

And the happiness of the profane is but for a moment?

⁶Even if his exaltation goes up to heaven,

And his head reaches to the clouds,

⁷He will perish in perpetuity like his dung.

Those who have seen him will say,

‘Where is he?’

⁸He will fly away like a dream

And will not be found,

And he will be driven away like a nightly vision.

⁹An eye may have seen him,

But it will do so no more,

And his home place will no longer welcome him.

¹⁰His sons will satisfy the poor,

And his own hands will repay his wealth.

¹¹While his bones are still full of youthful vigour,

Each will lie down in the dust with him.

¹²Although wickedness is sweet in the mouth,

And he keeps it hidden under his tongue,

¹³Keeping it and not letting it go,

And retaining it in his mouth,

¹⁴His food will change in his bowels;

There will be adders' venom in his innards.

¹⁵He has swallowed down riches

And will vomit them up again;

God will drive them out of his stomach.

¹⁶He will suck adders' poison;

The tongue of the viper will kill him.

¹⁷May he not see streams

– The rivers and brooks of honey and butter.

¹⁸He will repay what is owed for his toil

And will not swallow it up.

According to his wealth, his debt of restitution will be,

And he will not rejoice in it,

¹⁹Because he crushed and abandoned the poor;

He seized a house

Which he did not build,

²⁰And because he was never content inwardly,

Nor did he ever let a desirable object escape him.

²¹There is nothing that escapes his voracity,

Which is why his well-being will not last.

²²In satisfying his greed,

He enters into straits.

Every distressing force shall come upon him.

²³When he is about to fill his belly,

God will send his furious anger on him,

And he will rain it on him during his meal.

²⁴He may flee from iron weaponry,

But the copper bow will pierce him through.

²⁵And if one extract the arrow,

And it comes out of his back,

Or the blade comes out from his entrails,

Then terrors still await him.

²⁶All darkness is reserved for his hidden treasures;

A fire not blown with bellows will devour him.

Any survivor in his tent will fare badly.

²⁷The heavens will reveal his iniquity,

And the earth will rise up against him.

²⁸The produce of his household will be taken away,

And various things will be poured out

On the day of his wrath.

²⁹This is the fate of the wicked man from God,

And his appointed inheritance from God.”

¹Then Job answered and said,

²“Listen carefully to my words,

And let this be your consolation.

³Bear with me, and I will speak,

And after my words, you can mock.

⁴Is my complaint made to man?

And if so, why should I not be impatient?

⁵Turn towards me and be astonished,

And put your hand over your mouth.

⁶If I remember it,

I am terrified,

And fear takes hold of my body.

⁷Why do the wicked live

And grow old,

And even increase their power?

⁸Their seed is established with them in their presence,

And their progeny in their sight.

⁹Their houses are free of fear,

But there is no rule of God over them.

¹⁰His ox procreates

And is not infertile;

His cow calves

And does not miscarry.

¹¹They let their little ones frolic like lambs,

And their children dance around.

¹²They lift up their spirits with drum and harp,

And they rejoice to the sound of the flute.

¹³They spend their days in well-being,

But in a moment they descend to the underworld.

¹⁴Yet they say to God,

‘Depart from us’,

And, ‘We do not take pleasure in knowledge of your ways.

¹⁵Who is the Almighty,

That we should serve him,

And in what way are we profited,

That we entreat him?’

¹⁶Behold, their well-being is not under their control.

The conduct of the wicked is far from me.

¹⁷But you say,

‘How often the lamp of the wicked is extinguished,

And how often their downfall comes upon them!

He apportions them agony in his anger.

¹⁸They will be as straw in the wind,

And as chaff which the storm carries away.

¹⁹God reserves his punishment for the man's iniquity for his sons;

He retributes him,

And he knows it.

²⁰His eyes will see his demise,

And he will drink from the wrath of the Almighty.

²¹For what pleasure does he leave in his house after him

When the number of his months is cut in half?’

²²Can anyone teach God knowledge?

Or will he judge those on high?

²³One dies in the prime of his strength

When he is entirely at ease and comfortable.

²⁴His bottles are full of milk,

And the marrow of his bones is well-nourished.

²⁵Another dies with bitter feelings

And does not partake of the goodness.

²⁶Together in the dust they lie

And the worm covers them both.

²⁷Behold, I know your thoughts

And your devices,

Which do violence to me.

²⁸For you say,

‘Where is the noble's house?’

And, ‘Where is the tent of the dwellings of the wicked?’

²⁹Have you not asked the passers-by?

Do you not recognize their writing?

³⁰They say,

‘For the wicked man is reserved to the day of calamity;

They will be led to the day of wrath.’

³¹Who will tell him his way to his face?

And who will repay him for what he has done?

³²So he will be led to the burial places,

And he will take his place in his sepulchral mound.

³³The covering of turf from the brook will be sweet to him.

And every man after him will face the same fate,

As have countless before him,

³⁴So how can you comfort me with vanity,

And with answers in which treachery remains?”

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

²“Is a man profitable to God?

For a prudent man is profitable to himself.

³Is it a matter of delight to the Almighty

If you are righteous?

Or is it gain to him

That you act with integrity in your ways?

⁴Will he contend with you for fear of you?

Will he enter with you into a judicial process?

⁵Is not your wickedness great?

And is there no end to your iniquities?

⁶– Whether you bind your brothers by a pledge gratuitously,

Or strip off the clothes of those you leave naked,

⁷Or you don't give the weary water to drink,

Or you withhold bread from the hungry?

⁸Or you may be of those who say,

‘The earth belongs to the powerful man’,

And, ‘Let him who is of elevated station dwell in it.’

⁹You may have sent away widows empty-handed

And stood by when the arms of orphans were crushed.

¹⁰That is why there are snares all around you,

And fear suddenly grips you,

¹¹Or darkness so that you can't see anything,

Or a flood of water which will cover you.

¹²Is not God in the height of the heavens?

For see how high the foremost stars are.

¹³And you may have said,

‘What does God know?

Can he judge through dark clouds?

¹⁴Thick clouds are his secret covering,

And he cannot see,

And he walks round in the circuit of heaven.’

¹⁵Have you observed the age-old path

Which vain men have trodden?

¹⁶They become wrinkly before their time;

A river is spilled over their foundation.

¹⁷They say to God,

‘Depart from us’,

And ask how the Almighty can profit them.

¹⁸Yet he filled their houses with good things.

So the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

¹⁹The righteous will see their downfall and rejoice,

And the innocent man will mock them

²⁰And say,

‘Our adversary will certainly be obliterated,

And fire will consume their remnant.’

²¹Become familiar, I pray, with him,

And be at peace with them,

And your future will be good.

²²Receive, I pray, the law from what he says,

And put his declarations in your heart.

²³If you return to the Almighty,

You will be built up.

So remove iniquity from your tent,

²⁴And cast your fine gold on the dust,

And your Ophir gold on a torrent boulder,

²⁵And the Almighty will be your fine gold

And your silver treasure.

²⁶For then you will delight in the Almighty,

And you will lift up your face to God.

²⁷You will entreat him,

And he will hear you,

And you will fulfil your vows.

²⁸And you will make a declaration

Which will hold good for you,

And light will shine on your ways.

²⁹When others are brought low,

You will say,

‘Such is the consequence of pride,

But he saves the humble.’

³⁰He delivers the estate of the innocent,

And deliverance comes through the cleanness of your hands.”

¹Then Job answered and said,

²“Today, too, my complaint is bitter;

My vitality has become listless with all my sighing.

³If only I knew where I could find him,

I would go to his judgment seat.

⁴I would set out my case before him

And fill my mouth with arguments.

⁵I would acknowledge the words

Which he would answer me,

And I would understand

What he would say to me.

⁶Would he contend with me with great power?

No; he would certainly consider me.

⁷There, the upright disputes with him,

And I would be delivered in perpetuity from my judge.

⁸If I go forwards,

He is not there,

And if backwards,

I do not discern him,

⁹Or to the left where he is at work,

I do not behold him;

If he envelops himself on the right,

I do not see him.

¹⁰However, he knows the way I take.

When he examines me,

I will come out as gold.

¹¹My foot takes hold of his step;

I keep his way

And do not turn aside.

¹²As for his commandment which he has uttered,

I have not drawn back from what was appointed me.

I have treasured up the words which he has pronounced.

¹³But he is of one mind,

And who can make him go back on it?

His will desires a thing,

And he performs it.

¹⁴For he will carry out

What has been appointed for me,

And many such things

He has in store.

¹⁵That is why I will fear his presence.

When I consider the matter,

I am fearful of him.

¹⁶But God makes my heart faint,

And the Almighty causes me alarm,

¹⁷For I have not been cut off in the face of darkness,

Nor has he put a covering of gloom over my face.

¹Why, seeing that the times are not hidden from the Almighty,

And they are known,

Do they not see his dealings?

²They move boundaries,

And they snatch away a flock

And pasture it.

³They drive away an orphan's donkey;

They take away a widow's ox as security.

⁴They turn the poor aside from the way;

The poor of the earth are driven into hiding together.

⁵See how as wild asses in the desert they go out

In their business of diligently seeking food.

An arid tract is feeding ground

For each and for their young.

⁶In the field they reap their food,

And they glean the vineyard of a wicked man.

⁷They spend the night naked for lack of clothing,

And they have no covering in the cold.

⁸They become wet with mountain rainstorms,

And for lack of shelter they embrace a rock.

⁹They tear away the orphan for gain,

And they enslave the poor with debt.

¹⁰They cause him to go naked for lack of clothing,

And they take away the sheaf from the hungry.

¹¹Within their walls they press out new oil;

They tread the wine vats,

Yet are thirsty.

¹²From the city, men groan,

And the inward being of the wounded cries out,

Yet God does not impute them their depravity.

¹³These people are those who rebel against the light;

They do not recognize his ways,

And they do not remain in his paths.

¹⁴At first light the murderer rises

And kills the poor and needy,

And at night he is a thief.

¹⁵The eye of the adulterer observes darkness,

Saying, ‘No eye shall behold me’,

And he puts a covering on his face.

¹⁶He breaks into houses in the darkness,

Which in the daytime they mark out for themselves.

They do not know the light.

¹⁷For the morning for them is altogether the shadow of death,

For each knows the terrors of the shadow of death,

¹⁸Which is swift upon the surface of the water;

Their portion is cursed upon the earth.

He will not return to the way of the vineyards.

¹⁹As drought and heat snatch away the snowy waters,

So the grave snatches those who have sinned.

²⁰The womb will disown him;

The worm will feed sweetly on him.

He will no longer be remembered,

And iniquity will be shivered like a tree.

²¹He devours the barren,

Who has not given birth,

And to the widow he does not do good.

²²He drags away the mighty by his strength;

He rises,

And no-one is sure of his life.

²³God grants him security,

And he relies on it,

But his eyes are on their ways.

²⁴They are exalted for a little while,

Then they are gone,

And they waste away.

Like all others, they are gathered into the grave.

And like the top of a stem of corn,

They are cut off.

²⁵And if it is not so, who will convict me of falsehood

And make my speech null and void?”

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,

²“Dominion and fear are with him

– The one who makes peace in his high places.

³Do his troops have a number?

And upon whom does his light not rise?

⁴And how can man be justified with God?

And how can he who is born of a woman be pure?

⁵Behold, even the moon

(But it does not shine,)

And the stars

Are not pure in his sight.

⁶How much less man,

Destined for worms,

And the son of Adam,

Destined for maggots.”

¹Then Job answered and said,

²“How have you helped him

Who is without power,

And saved him

Whose arm is without strength?

³How have you given counsel to him

Who is without wisdom?

And how have you taught insight

To the multitude?

⁴To whom have you declared words,

And whose inspiration came from you?

⁵Do the Rephaim give birth under water,

Or do those who lie there with them?

⁶The grave is naked before him,

And there is no covering for the place of destruction.

⁷He stretches out the north over desolation,

And hangs the earth on nothing,

⁸Binding up waters on his thick clouds,

While the cloud below them is not laid open.

⁹He takes hold of the front of his throne

And spreads his cloud on it.

¹⁰He circumscribes a bound round the surface of the water

At the terminator between light and dark.

¹¹The pillars of heaven are shaken

And are astonished at his rebuke.

¹²By his power the sea roars,

And by his understanding

He dashes pride.

¹³By his spirit the heavens are beautifully made;

His hand formed the constellation of the fleeing serpent.

¹⁴Behold, these are the outlines of his ways,

For only a whisper of the matter is heard,

But who can understand the thunder of his power?”

¹Then Job went further in expounding his argument and said,

²“As God lives,

Who has taken my justice away,

And the Almighty,

Who has embittered my feelings,

³As long as my breath is in me,

And the spirit of God is in my nostrils,

⁴My lips shall certainly not speak wickedness,

And my tongue shall certainly not utter deceit.

⁵Far be it from me to justify you.

I will not renounce my integrity

Before I expire.

⁶I have held on to my righteousness,

And I will not relent on it.

My heart shall not reproach me

In all my days.

⁷Let my enemy be declared wicked,

And my opponent unjust.

⁸For what is the hope of the profane

If he has made unjust gain,

If God is indifferent to his life?

⁹Will God hear his cry

When adversity comes upon him?

¹⁰Will he delight in the Almighty?

Will he call on God at all times?”

¹¹“I will teach you by the hand of God;

I will not hide that which is with the Almighty.

¹²Behold, all of you have seen it.

Why then do you act so very vainly?

¹³This is the portion of the wicked man with God,

And the inheritance which tyrants receive from the Almighty.

¹⁴If his sons become numerous,

They will be destined for the sword,

And his offspring will not be satisfied with bread.

¹⁵Those who survive him will be buried in death,

And his widowed daughters-in-law will not weep.

¹⁶If he heaps up silver like dust

And prepares luxury clothing like clay,

¹⁷He may prepare it,

But the righteous man will wear it,

And the innocent will divide the silver.

¹⁸He builds a house like the moth,

And as a booth which a guard makes.

¹⁹The rich man lies down

But is not reunited with his forefathers;

He opens his eyes,

And his wealth has gone.

²⁰Every terror will overtake him like water;

At night a whirlwind will steal him away.

²¹The east wind will bear him away,

And away he will go,

And a storm will sweep him from his place.

²²For he will cast terrors on him,

And he will not spare.

He will certainly want to flee from his hand.

²³He will clap his hands at him

And hiss him away from his place.

¹Now for silver there is a vein,

And there is a place where they refine gold.

²Iron is obtained from ore,

And mineral is cast into copper.

³The miner discounts darkness,

And in every direction he searches for minerals,

In thick darkness and the shadow of death.

⁴He sinks a shaft with a migrant workforce,

Who do not use their feet.

They are lowered down;

They move about unnaturally.

⁵As for the land, from it comes bread,

But underneath it,

It is like fire swirling around.

⁶Amongst its stones is a place of sapphire;

It includes gold-bearing ore.

⁷There is a path which the bird of prey does not know,

And the eye of the kite has not seen.

⁸The lion's whelps have not trodden it,

And the fierce lion has not passed along it.

⁹At the flint he applies his hand;

He overturns mountains at their roots.

¹⁰He cuts out galleries in the rocks,

And his eye sees every kind of precious gemstone.

¹¹He blocks underground rivers from gushing,

And he brings a hidden thing to light.

¹²But from where is wisdom obtained?

And where is the place of understanding?

¹³Man does not know its value,

Nor is it found in the land of the living.

¹⁴The ocean says,

‘It is not in me’,

And the sea says,

‘It is not with me.’

¹⁵Gold cannot be given in exchange for it,

And silver cannot be weighed out as its price.

¹⁶It cannot be piled in the scales against fine gold from Ophir

Or valuable onyx or sapphire.

¹⁷Gold and crystal cannot match its value,

Nor is its exchange value an object of purified gold.

¹⁸Precious gems and crystal are not worth a mention,

But the acquisition of wisdom is worth more than red corals.

¹⁹Ethiopian topaz cannot match its value,

Nor can it be piled in the scales against pure gold.

²⁰But as for wisdom – where does it come from?

And where is the place of understanding?

²¹Well, it is concealed from the eyes of every living being,

And it is hidden from the birds of the sky.

²²Destruction and death say,

‘We have heard of its reputation with our ears.’

²³God understands its way,

And he knows its place.

²⁴For he looks to the ends of the earth;

He sees what is under all the heavens.

²⁵It was to give weight to the wind

When he weighed water accurately,

²⁶And when he issued a statute to the rain,

And a way for lightning and thunderclaps.

²⁷Then he saw it

And declared it.

He established it

And searched it out.

²⁸And he said to man,

‘Behold, the fear of the Lord^* is wisdom,

And to depart from evil is understanding.’ ”

¹Then Job again delivered a discourse on his part and said,

²“If only I were as in months past,

As in the days when God protected me,

³When he shone his light on my head,

When I walked by his light in darkness,

⁴When I was in my autumnal days,

With the secret counsel of God in my tent,

⁵When the Almighty was still with me,

When my children were round about me,

⁶When my steps were washed with buttermilk

And the rock poured out streams of oil for me,

⁷When I went out to the gate of the city,

And when I prepared my seat in the street.

⁸Young men would see me and make way for me,

And old men would rise and stand.

⁹Princes would hold back their words

And put their hand to their mouth.

¹⁰The voice of the governors would be hushed,

And their tongue would cleave to their palate.

¹¹For the ear that heard me would bless me,

And the eye that saw me would bear witness to me.

¹²For I delivered the poor who cried out,

And the orphan who had no-one to help him.

¹³The blessing for him who was dying would fall to me,

And I would cause the heart of the widow to rejoice.

¹⁴I put on righteousness,

And it clothed me;

My justice was as a coat and turban.

¹⁵I was eyes to the blind,

And I was feet to the lame.

¹⁶I was a father to the poor,

And if there was a dispute

Which I did not know the details of,

I would investigate it.

¹⁷And I broke the incisors of the unjust,

And I plucked the spoil out of his teeth.

¹⁸And I said,

‘I will expire when my home does,

And multiply my days like the sand.’

¹⁹My root spread out to the water,

And dew lodged on my branch.

²⁰The honour I had was fresh,

And my bow in my hand was full of vitality.

²¹Men would listen to me and wait;

They would be silent for my advice.

²²After my words they did not differ with me,

And my words condensed on them.

²³And they waited for me as for rain,

And they would open their mouth as for the latter rain.

²⁴They had the certainty that I would not laugh at them,

And they would never depress my cheerfulness.

²⁵I chose their course of action for them,

And I sat as chief,

And I dwelt like a king among his troops,

And as one who comforts those who mourn.

¹But now those who are younger than me in days laugh at me,

Whose fathers I would have declined to appoint in charge of my sheepdogs.

²Moreover, what use would their strong hands have been to me,

Considering they lacked maturity?

³Through want and hunger they were unproductive;

They were gnawing scraps in a drought-plagued land

Which was in former time desolate and desolated.

⁴They would pluck mallow among the shrubs,

And their food was the root of broom.

⁵They were driven out of the community;

People sounded an alarm at them as at a thief,

⁶So that they lived in dangerous gullies

– In holes in the ground and in rocks.

⁷They brayed among the shrubs;

They gathered together under the thorn bushes.

⁸They are the sons of the foolish

– Verily, the sons of those of no repute.

They were forcibly driven from the land.

⁹And now I have become their song,

And I have become their byword.

¹⁰They abhor me;

They keep their distance from me,

And they do not refrain from spitting in my face.

¹¹For he has loosed my cord and oppressed me,

And they have behaved in an unbridled way towards me.

¹²On the right, a rabble rises up;

They trip up my feet

And set up against me their destructive ways.

¹³They ravage my path,

They take advantage of my plight;

They do it gratuitously.

¹⁴As through a wide breach they come;

Accompanied by destruction, they roll on.

¹⁵Terrors are turned on me,

Which pursue my dignity like the wind,

And my salvation has passed away like a cloud.

¹⁶And now my heart is poured out on me;

Days of affliction have taken their hold on me.

¹⁷At night my bones give me shooting pain;

My gnawing nerves do not rest.

¹⁸With great tightness my covering of skin is like a disguise;

Like the collar of my tunic, it girds me.

¹⁹He has cast me into the mire,

And I have become like dust and ashes.”

²⁰“I cry out to you,

But you do not answer me.

I endure the time

For you to attend to me.

²¹You have become fierce to me;

You persecute me with your strong hand.

²²You bear me away,

You cause me to ride on the wind;

You dissolve my wealth.

²³For I know that you will return me to death,

And to the house appointed for all the living.”

²⁴“But he does not stretch out his hand to a mound of stones,

Even at their cry in one's demise.

²⁵I most certainly wept for him who was in difficult times;

My inner being mourned for the needy.

²⁶For I waited for good,

But evil came,

And I expected light,

But thick darkness arrived.

²⁷My inward parts are agitated,

And they will not be silent;

The days of affliction are in front of me.

²⁸I go about downcast,

With no bright spirit.

I stand,

And in the convocation I cry for help.

²⁹I have become a brother to jackals,

And a neighbour to ostriches.

³⁰My skin has turned black on me,

And my bones burn as from dry heat.

³¹And my harp has become a lamentation,

And my flute the sound of those weeping.

¹I have made a covenant concerning my eyes;

Now why should I pay attention to a virgin?

²And what is one's portion from God above,

And one's inheritance from the Almighty in the heights?

³Is it not calamity to the unjust man,

And alienation to the perpetrators of iniquity?

⁴Does he not see my ways

And count all my steps?

⁵– And know whether I have walked with vanity,

And whether my foot has hastened to deceit?

⁶Let him weigh me with just balances

So that God may know my integrity

⁷– Whether my step has turned aside from the way,

And whether my heart has followed my eyes,

And whether any spot has cleaved to my hands.

⁸If so, then let me sow,

And another eat,

And let my offspring be eradicated.

⁹If my heart has been seduced by a woman,

Or if I have lain in wait at the door of my neighbour,

¹⁰Then let my wife grind flour for another,

And let other servants bow to her as mistress.

¹¹For such behaviour would be depravity,

And that is a judicial offence.

¹²For such a fire would consume me to destruction,

And it would root out all my produce.

¹³If I have rejected the justice of my manservant or my maidservant

In their dispute with me,

¹⁴Then what should I do if God rises up,

And if he deals with the case?

What should I answer him?

¹⁵Did not he who made me in the womb

Also make the other?

Did not he form us

In one kind of womb?

¹⁶I have certainly not withheld my support from the poor,

Or caused the eye of the widow to languish,

¹⁷Nor eaten my morsel on my own,

With the orphan not partaking of it.

¹⁸For from my youth the orphan grew up while I was as a father,

And from my mother's womb I guided the widow.

¹⁹If I saw anyone perishing for want of clothing,

Or if the poor had no covering,

²⁰His loins certainly were grateful to me

As he warmed himself in fleece from my lambs.

²¹If I have lifted up my hand against the orphan

When I saw at the gate a need for my help,

²²May my shoulder fall from the shoulder blade,

And my arm be broken from the arm socket.

²³For fear was upon me

Of a downfall from God,

For I cannot prevail against his exalted position.

²⁴If I have made gold my hope

And said to fine gold,

‘You are my ground of reliance’;

²⁵If I have delighted because my wealth was great,

Or because my hand had found abundance,

²⁶Or if I saw sunlight when it shone,

Or the moon making its course in honour,

²⁷And my heart was deceived in secret,

And my hand kissed my mouth,

²⁸This too would have been a judicial offence,

For I would have acted falsely towards God above,

²⁹Or if I have rejoiced

At the demise of him who hates me,

And I have been uplifted

When evil befell him.

³⁰I have not allowed the roof of my mouth to sin

By asking for a curse on his life.

³¹It is the men of my household who certainly said,

‘If only we had a part of his flesh;

We are not satisfied.’

³²The foreigner has not had to lodge out in the open;

I have opened my doors to the traveller.

³³If I have covered my transgressions like Adam,

By hiding my iniquity in my bosom,

³⁴Then may I fear a great multitude,

And the contempt of families intimidating me,

So that I become silent

And do not go out of doors.

³⁵If only I had someone who would listen to me.

If only the Almighty would answer me with a written charge for me,

And the one who is contending with me

Would write out the case against me in a book.

³⁶I would certainly bear it on my shoulder

And bind it to myself like crowns.

³⁷I would declare the number of my steps;

Like a prince I would approach him.

³⁸If my ground cries out against me,

And if its furrows weep together,

³⁹If I have eaten the produce of it without paying,

If I have caused the inner selves of those entitled to it to gasp,

⁴⁰Then let thistles come up instead of wheat,

And weeds instead of barley.

The words of Job are complete.”

¹Then these three men ceased answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. ²But the anger of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was kindled against Job. His anger was kindled because he justified himself rather than God. ³And his anger was kindled against his three friends, because they did not find an answer, and they condemned God. ⁴Now Elihu had waited for Job in his discourse, because they were older than him in days. ⁵When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of the three men, his anger was kindled. ⁶And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said,

“I am young in days,

But you are aged,

So I was diffident and fearful about declaring my opinion to you.

⁷I said to myself,

‘Let days speak,

And let years of life make wisdom known.’

⁸Surely there is a spirit in man,

But it is the breath of the Almighty

Which enlightens them.

⁹It is not the great who are wise,

Or elders who understand justice.

¹⁰So I said,

‘Listen to me;

I also will give my opinion.’

¹¹Behold, I have waited for your discourse;

I gave ear to your expositions

Until you had searched out all your arguments.

¹²So I gave heed to you,

But look, Job does not have anyone who has convicted him among you,

Giving a proper answer to his words.

¹³I speak lest you should say,

‘We have found wisdom;

It is God who is demolishing him,

Not man.’

¹⁴He did not marshal his arguments against me,

And neither shall I answer him with your orations.”

¹⁵“They were confounded

And they did not answer any more.

Words failed them.

¹⁶And I waited,

But they did not speak,

For they stood,

Without answering any more.”

¹⁷“I too will answer my part;

I too will declare my opinion.

¹⁸For I am full of words;

The spirit of my inmost part constrains me.

¹⁹Behold, my belly is like unopened wine;

Like new leather bottles,

It is on the point of bursting.

²⁰I will speak

And it will give me relief;

I will open my lips

And answer.

²¹Let me not, I pray, show partiality,

And let me not call any man by a title.

²²For I do not know how to call by titles.

If I did,

My maker would soon take me away.

¹And so Job, please listen to my address,

And give ear to all my words.

²Behold, I pray, I have opened my mouth;

My tongue has spoken in my oral cavity.

³My words are from the uprightness of my heart,

And my lips speak knowledge clearly.

⁴The spirit of God made me,

And the breath of the Almighty gave me life.

⁵If you can, answer me,

Set out your arguments before me;

Take your stand.

⁶You see, I am here,

As you asked,

On behalf of God.

I too was formed from clay.

⁷Behold, the shock of me need not frighten you,

Nor will my demands weigh down on you.

⁸You certainly spoke in my ears,

And I heard the sound of your words,

When, Job, you said,

⁹‘I am pure, without transgression;

I am faultless,

And there is no iniquity in me.

¹⁰See how he finds a pretext against me;

He considers me as his enemy.

¹¹He places my feet in fetters;

He watches all my paths.’

¹²Behold, in this argumentation you are not just,

I answer you,

For God is greater than man.

¹³Why do you strive against him,

In that he does not answer you

Concerning any of his affairs?

¹⁴For on one occasion God may speak,

And on a second occasion he may not attend to the matter.

¹⁵In a dream, a nightly vision,

When sleep falls on men,

In slumber on the bed,

¹⁶He then opens up the ears of men,

And in correcting them,

He seals them,

¹⁷To remove man from his dealings

And to put pride out of sight of men.

¹⁸He spares his body from the pit,

And his life from the piercing of a missile.

¹⁹He is corrected with pain on his bed,

And with mighty conflict in his bones,

²⁰So that his condition in life makes him lose appetite for food,

And it makes his being reject exquisite fare.

²¹His flesh is consumed so as not to be visible,

And his bones stick out, which previously would not be seen.

²²And his being draws nearer to the pit,

And his life to the killers.

²³If there is an interpreting angel by his side

– One out of a thousand –

To declare to a man whether he is upright,

²⁴Then he will be merciful to him and will say,

‘Deliver him from going down into the pit;

I have found a ransom.’

²⁵His flesh will be made fresher than that of his youth;

He will return to the days of his young adulthood.

²⁶He will make supplication to God,

And he will accept him,

And he will see his face with a shout for joy,

And he will render to man his righteousness.

²⁷He will look upon man,

And if a man says,

‘I have sinned and perverted what is upright,

And it did not satisfy me’,

²⁸He will deliver his being from passing into the pit,

And his life will see light.

²⁹See how God performs all these things,

Twice or three times with man,

³⁰To bring back his life from the pit,

And to be enlightened in the light of life.

³¹Hearken, Job,

And listen to me;

Be silent,

And I will speak.

³²If you have words,

Answer me.

Speak,

For I wish to justify you.

³³If not, listen to me;

Be silent,

And I will teach you wisdom.”

¹Furthermore Elihu continued speaking and said,

²“You who are wise,

Hear my words,

And you who are knowledgeable,

Give ear to me.

³For the ear puts words to the test,

As the palate tastes that which is to be eaten.

⁴Let us choose justice for ourselves;

Let us find out among ourselves what is good.

⁵For Job has said,

‘I am just,

But God has taken away my justice.

⁶Do I lie concerning my justice?

The arrow with which I have been struck is grievous,

Though I am without transgression.’

⁷What man is like Job?

He drinks mockery like water,

⁸And he travels in the company of perpetrators of iniquity,

And he walks with wicked men.

⁹For he has said,

‘It does not profit a man

To take delight in God.’

¹⁰Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding.

Far be God from wickedness,

And the Almighty from iniquity.

¹¹For he repays a man his work,

And according to the way of a man,

So he requites him.

¹²It is indeed certain that God does not act wickedly,

And that the Almighty does not pervert justice.

¹³Who gave him charge over the earth?

And who appointed him over the whole world?

¹⁴If he were to consider only himself,

And to gather to himself his spirit and his breath,

¹⁵All flesh would expire together,

And man would return to dust.

¹⁶Now if you have understanding,

Listen to this.

Give ear to the sound of my words.

¹⁷Can one who hates justice make binding laws?

Or will you condemn the great just one?

¹⁸Is it fitting to say to a king,

‘You are useless’,

Or to princes,

‘You are wicked’?

¹⁹How much less to him who does not show partiality to nobles,

And who does not favour the opulent above the poor?

For all of them are the work of his hands.

²⁰In a moment, they die,

And in the middle of the night a people is shaken,

And they pass away.

A mighty people is removed,

But not by hand.

²¹For his eyes are on the ways of man,

And he sees all his steps.

²²There is no darkness,

And there is no shadow of death,

For the perpetrators of iniquity to hide there.

²³For he no longer makes charges against man

For him to enter into a judicial process with God;

²⁴He breaks the mighty in an unsearchable way

And sets up others in their place.

²⁵So then, he recognizes their works

And overturns them at night,

And they are broken in pieces.

²⁶He strikes them on account of their wicked deeds

In a place where people can see it,

²⁷Because they turned away from following him,

And they did not prudently attend to any of his ways,

²⁸So bringing the cry of the poor to him,

So that he heard the cry of the needy.

²⁹When he imposes quietness,

Who can act wickedly?

And when he hides his face,

Who can see him?

And whether it is against a people or whether against a man,

It is the same.

³⁰He acts so that the profane man cannot reign,

Giving protection from snares targeting the people.

³¹For does one say to God,

‘I have suffered punishment;

I will no longer act perversely.

³²Teach me what I do not see;

If I have committed iniquity,

I will do so no more’?

³³Should he repay you for it on your terms,

And say,

‘It does not matter if you reject one thing or choose another,

And I have no say?

So say what you know.’

³⁴Let men of understanding speak to me,

And let the wise man listen to me.

³⁵Job has not spoken knowledgeably,

And his words were not prudent.

³⁶My desire is that Job should be tested to the limit,

Because his answers were in line with those of iniquitous men.

³⁷For he has added transgression to his sin;

He has clapped his hands in our company

And spoken at length against God.”

¹Furthermore Elihu continued speaking and said,

²“Did you think it was justice when you said,

‘My righteousness is greater than that of God’?

³For you asked what benefit you had,

And you said,

‘What advantage is there to me in desisting from my sin?’

⁴I will reply to you with words

And to your companions with you.

⁵Look at the heavens and see,

And behold the clouds which are higher than you.

⁶If you sin,

What impact do you have on him?

And if your transgressions are many,

What effect do you have on him?

⁷If you are righteous,

What will you give him?

Or what will he accept from your hand?

⁸Your wicked deed is one thing to a man like yourself,

As is your righteousness to a son of Adam.

⁹Men may cry out on account of a multitude of oppressions;

They may shout out because of the power of the mighty,

¹⁰But no-one says,

‘Where is God my maker,

Who gives songs in dark times,

¹¹Who is our teacher of things beyond the cattle of the earth,

And who makes us wise in matters deeper than the birds of the sky?’

¹²There, they cry out,

But he does not answer them,

Because of the pride of evil men.

¹³Surely God does not hearken to vanity,

And the Almighty does not see it favourably.

¹⁴How much less when you would say to him,

‘You do not see it favourably.’

When judgment is taking place before him,

Wait for him.

¹⁵And now, you say that it is not in anger

That he visits men,

And that he does not acknowledge great excess.

¹⁶So Job has opened his mouth in vain,

And he has uttered many words without knowledge.”

¹Then Elihu continued and said,

²“Stay around me a little while,

And I will declare more to you,

For God still has words to come.

³I will take the sum of my knowledge

Which comes from afar

And ascribe righteousness to my maker.

⁴For truly, my words are not false;

He who is omniscient is with you.

⁵Behold, God is mighty,

And he does not reject anyone;

He is mighty in depth of character.

⁶He does not preserve the wicked man alive

But gives justice to the poor.

⁷He will not withdraw his eyes from the righteous,

For he seats them with kings on the throne,

And he accommodates them in perpetuity,

And they are exalted.

⁸And if any are bound in fetters,

If they are taken by the cords of affliction,

⁹Then he tells them their work,

Including their transgressions,

When they behaved insolently.

¹⁰And he opens their ears to correction,

And he tells them that they must renounce iniquity.

¹¹If they hearken and serve him,

They will complete their days in prosperity

And their years in pleasantness.

¹²But if they do not hearken,

They will perish by the missile,

And they will expire in ignorance.

¹³And the profane-minded lay up wrath;

They cannot cry out,

For he binds them.

¹⁴They die in youth,

And their life ends among male prostitutes.

¹⁵He delivers the afflicted in his affliction,

And he opens their ears in their oppression.

¹⁶And indeed he would draw you away from the jaws of straitness

To a broad place

So that there is no distress in the vicinity,

And that which is set on your table

Would be full of fatness.

¹⁷But you are full of judgment belonging to the wicked;

Judgment and justice are taking hold of you.

¹⁸When there is fury,

Beware lest he draw you away at a stroke,

To where no great ransom can lead you back.

¹⁹Will he respect your riches,

You who are not in straitness?

No, nor will he respect any exercise of power.

²⁰Do not desire the night,

When whole peoples are upheaved on the spot.

²¹Beware and do not turn to iniquity,

For you have chosen this way

Rather than the way of affliction.

²²You see how God exalts by his power.

Who is a teacher like him?

²³Who appointed him his way?

And who can say,

‘You have committed iniquity’?

²⁴Remember this when you extol his work,

Which men gaze upon.

²⁵All men have seen it;

Mortal man beholds it from afar.

²⁶Behold, God is exalted,

And we do not know the number of his years,

And there is no way of searching them out.

²⁷For he draws off particles of water

Which condense as rain in his mist

²⁸And distil as fine clouds;

They precipitate on man abundantly.

²⁹Can anyone really understand the spreading out of clouds

Or the rumblings of his abode?

³⁰Behold, he spreads his light out over it

And covers the sea bed.

³¹Yet by these weather phenomena he judges nations

And gives food abundantly.

³²With his hands he grasps the lightning

And commands it where to strike.

³³Its noise warns of it;

Cattle do so too,

Of what is arising.

¹Moreover, at this my heart trembles,

And it is unsettled.

²Listen diligently to the raging of his voice,

And the rumbling which proceeds from his mouth.

³He directs it under all the heavens,

And his light extends to the extremities of the earth.

⁴After it, the sound roars.

He causes thunder with his majestic sound,

And no-one can trace these things

When his voice is heard.

⁵God thunders with his voice wondrously,

Performing great deeds

Which we do not know about.

⁶For to the snow he says,

‘Be on the earth’,

And similarly to the showery rain

And to his strong heavy downpours.

⁷He puts an end to the work of every man,

So that all men may know of his workmanship.

⁸Then the wild animal comes to its lair

And dwells in its den.

⁹From the south comes the whirlwind,

And from the north comes the cold.

¹⁰From God's breath, he makes ice,

And the expanse of water is changed to solid.

¹¹Also with moisture he gives the thick cloud a payload,

But his sunlight dissipates a dense haze.

¹²Each turns round and round

According to his direction for them to act.

They do everything he commands them

On the face of the inhabited regions on earth.

¹³He brings it about,

Whether as chastisement

Or for his land

Or as mercy.

¹⁴Hearken to this, Job;

Stand still and contemplate God's wonders.

¹⁵Do you know how God directs them

Or causes his lightning to flash?

¹⁶Do you know about the technicalities of the cloud?

Or the wondrous works of the omniscient one?

¹⁷Or how it is that your clothing is warm

When he quietens the land with wind from the south?

¹⁸Can you stretch out the skies with him,

Firmly, like a cast mirror?

¹⁹Teach us what we should say to him,

For we cannot marshal our arguments,

Because we are in darkness.

²⁰Does it need to be reported to him

When I speak?

If a man speaks perniciously,

Will it not follow that he will be swallowed up?

²¹And now men do not see the light.

It is bright in the upper sky

When the wind has passed through and cleaned it.

²²Golden light comes from the north;

Upon God is awesome splendour.

²³We cannot find the Almighty.

He is great in power and justice,

And abundant in righteousness.

He does not afflict.

²⁴Therefore men fear him;

None of the wise in heart can see him.”

¹Then the Lord answered Job from a whirlwind and said,

²“Who is this who darkens counsel

With words without knowledge?

³Gird up your waist like a man,

And I will question you,

And you can answer me.

⁴Where were you when I founded the earth?

Declare it, if you have understanding.

⁵Who sets its dimensions?

Tell me, if you know.

Or who stretched out a measuring line over it?

⁶On what are its foundations sunk?

Or who laid its cornerstone?

⁷– When the morning stars sang out together,

And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

⁸– And when he enclosed the sea with doors,

When it broke out?

– When it came out of the womb?

⁹– When I appointed the cloud to be its clothing,

And the dark cloud to be its swaddling clothes?

¹⁰– And when I imposed my limit on it

And appointed bolts and doors?

¹¹– And said,

‘You come this far and no further’,

And there the rising up of your waves was blocked?

¹²Have you in all your days ever commanded the morning?

Or have you informed the dawn of its place?

¹³Do you know how to take hold of the extremities of the earth

So that the wicked are shaken out of it?

¹⁴– Or how the earth is changed like clay under a seal?

– Or how morning and dawn stand out as an adornment?

¹⁵– And how their light is withheld from the wicked,

And an uplifted arm is broken?

¹⁶Have you been to the founts of the sea?

Or have you walked about in the deep for investigations?

¹⁷Have the gates of death been revealed to you?

Or have you seen the portals of the shadow of death?

¹⁸Do you have understanding of the wide places of the earth?

Tell me, if you know all this.

¹⁹Where is the way to where light dwells?

And as for darkness, where is its place?

²⁰Did you take it to its boundary,

And do you understand the paths to its abode?

²¹Do you know this?

For if you did,

You would have to have been born at that time,

And your days would be very many.

²²Have you been to the treasuries of snow?

Or have you seen the repositories of hail,

²³Which I have reserved for the time of adversity?

– For the day of battle and war?

²⁴In what way does light divide itself?

In what way does the east wind spread out over the earth?

²⁵Who cut out a channel for a deluge?

– Or a route for lightning in a thunderstorm?

²⁶– To cause it to rain on an earth where no man is,

On a desert in which no person lives?

²⁷– To satiate desolate ground and desolated tracts

So as to cause the growth of sprouting grass?

²⁸Does rain have a father?

Or who begot the dewdrops?

²⁹Out of whose womb does ice come?

And who gives birth to heaven's hoarfrost?

³⁰Like a stone, the water becomes hidden,

And the surface of the deep solidifies.

³¹Can you bind the delights of the Pleiades?

Or can you loose the cords of Orion?

³²Can you bring out each sign of the zodiac in its season?

Or can you guide Arcturus with his sons?

³³Do you know the physical laws of the sky?

Can you appoint their dominion over the earth?

³⁴Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,

Commanding them that plenteous water should cover you?

³⁵Can you send lightning strikes,

So that they go and say to you,

‘Here we are’?

³⁶Who put wisdom in the inward parts?

Or who gave understanding to the mind?

³⁷Who can count the clouds in wisdom?

And who can stop up heaven's bottles?

³⁸– When dust is cast into a solid,

And clods of earth cleave together?

³⁹Can you hunt for prey for the lion?

And can you feed the lion cubs?

⁴⁰For they crouch in their den;

They lie in wait in the thicket.

⁴¹Who prepares feed for the raven?

– When its young cry out to God?

– When they are perishing for lack of food?

¹Do you know the time

When the mountain goats give birth?

Or do you keep watch over the time

When the hinds calve?

²Can you count the months for which they gestate?

And do you know the time when they give birth?

³They crouch,

They deliver their young;

They cast off their labour pangs.

⁴Their young grow strong;

They grow up in the open field.

They go out

And do not return.

⁵Who set the wild ass free?

And who loosed the bonds of the wild donkey?

⁶– Whose home territory I appointed to be the arid tracts

And whose dwelling places to be salt land?

⁷He derides the urban crowd

And does not hear the clamour of the taskmaster.

⁸The forageable area of the mountains is his pasture,

And he searches for every green plant.

⁹Does the buffalo love to work for you?

And does it lodge in your stall?

¹⁰Can you bind the buffalo to his harness

For ploughing a furrow?

Or will he harrow the valleys behind you?

¹¹Do you put your trust in him?

For his strength is great.

And do you leave your toil to him?

¹²Will you put your trust in him

That he will make a return on your seed

And gather it in your threshing hall?

¹³Are you responsible for it when the wing of the ostrich is celebrated,

Or the wing feather of the stork and its plumage?

¹⁴For she commits her eggs to the ground

And hatches them on soil,

¹⁵And she forgets that a foot may crush them,

And that a wild animal may trample on them.

¹⁶She treats her young harshly,

As if not her own.

Her labour is in vain and without fear.

¹⁷For God causes her to forget wisdom,

And he has not apportioned her with understanding.

¹⁸In due time she rises on high

And looks down on the horse and on its rider.

¹⁹Did you give the horse his strength?

Did you clothe his neck with a mane?

²⁰Did you give him the ability to jump like a locust?

The dignity of his snorting is awesome.

²¹He paws in the valley

And rejoices in his strength

And engages in battle.

²²He derides fear

And is not afraid

And does not turn back from the sword.

²³Alongside him the quiver rattles,

And the blade of the spear and the lance.

²⁴With noise and raging, he stamps the earth

And does not stand in place when the sound of the ramshorn is heard.

²⁵Whenever the ramshorn is heard,

He says, ‘Aha!’,

And smells war from a distance

– The thunder of generals and the sound of alarm.

²⁶Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars

And stretches its wings to the south?

²⁷Or is it according to your command that the eagle soars,

And that it makes its nest high up?

²⁸It dwells and lodges on a rock,

On a crag and citadel.

²⁹For there it seeks prey;

Its eyes see it from a distance.

³⁰And its young suck up blood,

And wherever the slain are,

There it is.”

¹And the Lord answered Job further and said,

²“Will he who contends with the Almighty

Instruct him?

Let the reprover of God answer it.”

³Then Job answered the Lord and said,

⁴“Behold, I am base.

How can I answer you?

I put my hand to my mouth.

⁵I spoke once,

But I cannot answer for it,

And a second time,

But I will not do so any more.”

⁶Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind and said,

⁷“Gird up your waist like a man.

I will ask you,

And you can answer me.

⁸Will you declare my judgment void?

Will you condemn me,

So that you are righteous?

⁹Now do you have an arm like God,

And can you thunder with a voice like his?

¹⁰Kindly deck yourself with excellence and majesty,

And clothe yourself with glory and splendour.

¹¹Distribute the outbursts of your anger,

And see everyone who is proud,

And bring him low.

¹²See everyone who is proud,

And bring him down,

And tread on the wicked on the spot.

¹³Hide them in the dust together;

Bind them in a hidden place.

¹⁴Then I myself will confess to you,

That your right hand can save you.

¹⁵Behold, please, Behemoth,

Which I made with you.

It eats grass like an ox.

¹⁶Look at its strength in its loins,

And its might in the muscles of its rump.

¹⁷It swings its tail like a cedar,

And its fearful sinews are interwoven.

¹⁸Its bones are tubes of copper,

And its frame is like bars of iron.

¹⁹It is the pre-eminence of God's ways;

Only he who made it

Can bring his sword against it.

²⁰For the mountains yield produce for it,

Where all the wild beasts play.

²¹It lies under lotus bushes,

Secretly, in reeds and swamp land.

²²The lotus bushes cover it with their shade;

The willows of the brook surround it.

²³What if the river bears down on it?

It is not alarmed.

It is confident,

Even when the Jordan gushes into its mouth.

²⁴Can anyone capture it by its eyes?

Can anyone hook its nose with snares?

¹Can you haul in Leviathan with a hook?

Or can you tie his tongue down with a cord?

²Can you place a cauldron over his snout?

Or can you bore through his jaw with a hook?

³Will he make many supplications to you?

Or will he speak to you softly?

⁴Will he make a covenant with you?

Or can you domesticate him?

⁵Can you play with him, as with a bird?

– Or cage him for your maidservants?

⁶Or will wholesalers buy him up

And divide him among retailers?

⁷Can you fill his skin with spears?

– Or his head with fishing harpoons?

⁸Put your hand on him.

Remember that it will be battle,

And you will not do it again.

⁹See how one's hope is proved false.

Is it not so, that even at the sight of him

One loses heart?

¹⁰No-one is so bold that he dares awaken him,

So who is it who can stand before me.

Everything under the whole of heaven is mine.

¹²I will not be silent about his limbs,

For his figure is a matter of might and gracefulness.

¹³Who has uncovered his outer clothing?

Who can approach his double row of teeth?

¹⁴Who can open the gates of his face?

The surroundings of his teeth are terrifying.

¹⁵The central ridges of his scales are his pride.

Each one is closed making a tight seal.

¹⁶One is so close to another

That no air can come between them.

¹⁷One cleaves to the one next to it;

They interlock and do not come apart.

¹⁸His sneezings cause light to flash,

And his eyes are like the eyelids of dawn.

¹⁹From his mouth flames go out;

Sparks of fire are released.

²⁰Smoke is emitted from his nostrils,

Like a fanned brazier and a cauldron.

²¹His breath kindles coals,

And flame is emitted from his mouth.

²²His neck is a source of strength,

And faint-heartedness beats a hasty retreat at his advance.

²³Even the softer parts of his flesh cleave to him tightly

And are firm on him so as not to shake.

²⁴His heart is firm like stone

And is as hard as a lower millstone.

²⁵The mighty are afraid of him being roused;

They are at their wits' end because of his ravaging.

²⁶The sword of anyone who engages him will not hold out,

Nor spear, nor projectile, nor coat of mail.

²⁷He regards iron as straw,

And copper as rotten wood.

²⁸The arrow does not cause him to flee,

And stones of the sling are regarded as stubble by him.

²⁹He considers a club as stubble,

And he laughs at the rattling of lances.

³⁰He has sharp points under him;

He splays sharp appendages in the mire.

³¹He makes the deep boil like a pot;

He makes the sea like a pot of ointment.

³²He causes a path to light up behind him,

So that one would think the deep had acquired silver hair.

³³There is not the like of him on the earth,

Who is made without fear.

³⁴He looks dauntlessly on every high thing;

He is king of all proud creatures.”

Reference(s) in Chapter 41: v.11 ↔ Romans 11:35.

¹Then Job answered the Lord and said,

²“I know that you can do everything,

And no plan of action is inaccessible to you.

³You asked,

‘Who is this who hides counsel

Without knowledge?’

Because I gave an exposition,

But I do not have understanding.

These things are too wondrous for me,

And I do not know about them.

⁴Hear me, I pray,

And I will speak.

You said,

‘I will ask you,

And you can answer me.’

⁵I heard you by hearing of the ear,

But now my eye has seen you.

⁶For this reason I despise myself,

And I repent in dust and ashes.”

⁷And it came to pass, after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My anger is kindled against you, and against your two companions, for you have not spoken what is right about me, like my servant Job. ⁸And now, take for yourselves seven bulls, and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer them as a burnt offering for yourselves, and my servant Job will pray for you. For contrariwise I will accept him, so that I do not deal with you according to your folly, for you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has.” ⁹So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite departed and acted according to what the Lord had told them, and the Lord restored Job. ¹⁰And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friend, and the Lord restored everything of Job's – double. ¹¹And all his brothers and all his sisters and all his previous acquaintances came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house, and they consoled him and comforted him over all the calamity that the Lord had brought on him, and each gave him one kesitah coin, and each gave one golden earring. ¹²And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his former days, and he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand she-asses. ¹³And he had seven sons and three daughters. ¹⁴And he called one Jemima, and the second one Keziah, and he called the third Keren-Happuch. ¹⁵And no women were found as beautiful as Job's daughters in all the land, and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. ¹⁶And after this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and he saw his sons and his grandsons, to four generations. ¹⁷And Job died old and full of days.

¹Happy is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,

And who does not stand on the way of sinners,

And who does not sit in the seat of mockers,

²But whose delight is in the Lord's law,

And in whose law he meditates day and night.

³And he will be like a tree planted at brooks of water,

Which yields its fruit in its season,

And whose leaves will not wither,

For everything that he does will prosper.

⁴Not so the wicked;

They are on the contrary like chaff

Which the wind drives about.

⁵That is why the wicked will not be able to stand at the judgment,

Nor will sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

⁶For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

But the way of the wicked will cease.

³And say, “Let us break their bonds apart

And cast their cords off us.”

⁴He who dwells in the heavens will laugh;

The Lord^* will deride them.

⁵Then he will speak to them in his anger,

And in his fury he will terrify them.

⁶But I have anointed my king,

On Zion, my holy mountain.

⁷I will relate the Lord's statute.

He has said to me,

⁸Ask me,

And the ends of the earth as your possession.

¹⁰So now, you kings, act wisely;

Be admonished, you judges of the earth.

¹¹Serve the Lord with fear,

And rejoice in awe.

¹²Kiss the son

Lest he becomes angry

And you perish on the way,

When his anger is kindled but a little.

Happy are all those who trust in him.

Reference(s) in Chapter 2: v.1 ↔ Acts 4:25 ● v.2 ↔ Acts 4:26 ● v.7 ↔ Acts 13:33, Hebrews 1:5, Hebrews 5:5 ● v.8 ↔ Revelation 2:26 ● v.9 ↔ Revelation 2:27, Revelation 12:5, Revelation 19:15.

^1aA Psalm of David when he was fleeing from Absalom his son.

^1bO Lord, how my adversaries have increased!

Many are rising up against me.

²Many say about myself,

“There is no salvation in God for him.”

Selah.

³But you, O Lord, are a shield around me

– My glory,

And the one who lifts up my head.

⁴I call out to the Lord with my voice,

And he answers me from his holy mountain.

Selah.

⁵I lay down and fell asleep.

Then I awoke,

For the Lord sustained me.

⁶I will not be afraid of the tens of thousands of people

Who have ranged themselves against me.

⁷Rise up, O Lord;

Save me, O God of mine,

For you have struck all my enemies on the cheek;

You have broken the teeth of the wicked.

⁸Salvation is of the Lord;

Your blessing is on your people.

Selah.

^1aTo the choirmaster, in singing set to stringed music.↑

A Psalm of David.

^1bWhen I call out,

Answer me, O God of my righteousness.

You have relieved me in adversity;

Have mercy on me,

And hear my prayer.

²You sons of man, how long will you put my glory to shame?

You love vanity;

You seek falsehood.

Selah.

³So know that the Lord has set apart a sacred one for himself;

The Lord will hear when I call out to him.

⁴Be overawed and do not sin,

Speaking in your heart on your bed,

And be silent.

Selah.

⁵Offer righteous sacrifices,

And put your trust in the Lord.

⁶Many say, “Who will show us goodness?”

Raise the light of your presence on us, O Lord.

⁷You have put gladness in my heart

– More so than at the time

When their corn and new wine became abundant.

⁸I can lie down and sleep at the same time in peace,

For you alone, O Lord, can let me dwell in safety.

Reference(s) in Chapter 4: v.4 ↔ Ephesians 4:26.

^1aTo the choirmaster in singing set to wind instruments.↑

A Psalm of David.

^1bO Lord, listen to my words;

Consider my meditation.

²Hearken to my call of crying out,

O my king and my God,

For to you I pray.

³O Lord, you hear my voice in the morning;

In the morning I will marshal my thoughts to you

And keep watch.

⁴For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness;

No evil dwells in you.

⁵Those who boast shall not stand in your sight;

You hate all who are engaged in iniquity.

⁶You will destroy those who speak falsehood;

The Lord abhors the man of blood and deceit.

⁷But as for me, I will go to your house in the abundance of your kindness;

I will worship facing your holy temple

In fear of you.

⁸Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness

On account of my adversaries;

Make your way straight ahead of me.

⁹For there is no rectitude in his mouth;

Their inner heart consists of lusts.

¹⁰Condemn them, O God,

Let them fall by their own plans.

Drive them out for the multitude of their transgressions,

For they have rebelled against you.

¹¹Then all who put their trust in you will rejoice;

They will shout for joy age-abidingly,

And you will protect them,

And those who love your name

Will exult in you.

¹²For you, O Lord, will bless the righteous man;

You will surround him with delight like a shield.

Reference(s) in Chapter 5: v.9 ↔ Romans 3:13.

^1aTo the choirmaster in singing set to stringed music, concerning the eighth day division choir.↑

A Psalm of David.

^1bO Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger,

And do not chasten me in your fury.

²Have mercy on me, O Lord,

For I am languishing.

Heal me, O Lord,

For my bones are agitated,

³And my inner being is very agitated.

And you, O Lord,

How long before you act?

⁴Return, O Lord;

Save my life

And deliver me,

For your kindness' sake.

⁵For in death there is no remembrance of you;

In the grave, who can give thanks to you?

⁶I am weary with my sighing;

All night I cause my bed to swim.

I dissolve my mattress with my tears.

⁷My eye has been ravaged with grief;

It has aged because of all my adversaries.

For the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.

⁹The Lord has heard my supplication;

The Lord will accept my prayer.

¹⁰Let all my enemies be ashamed

And be most frightened;

Let them desist

And become ashamed in an instant.

Reference(s) in Chapter 6: v.8 ↔ Luke 13:27.

^1aA Psalm of David of pre-eminence, which he sang to the Lord about the words of Cush the Benjaminite.

^1bO Lord my God, I have put my trust in you.

Save me from all those who pursue me,

And deliver me,

²Lest he, like a lion, tears my body in pieces,

Crushing me,

With no-one to deliver me.

³O Lord my God,

If I have done this,

If there is any injustice in my hands,

⁴If I have requited evil to anyone at peace with me,

Or if I have spoiled my adversary gratuitously,

⁵Then let my enemy pursue me to the death

And catch up with me

And trample on my life on the ground

And place my honour in the dust.

Selah.

⁶Arise, O Lord, in your anger;

Raise yourself at the haughtiness of my adversaries,

And rouse yourself for me by executing the justice

Which you have commanded.

⁷When the congregation of the various peoples surrounds you,

Return on high above them.

⁸The Lord will judge various peoples;

Judge me, O Lord,

According to my righteousness

And my personal integrity.

⁹Please may the evil of the wicked come to an end,

And may you establish the just,

When the righteous God tests hearts and kidneys.

¹⁰My shield is by means of trust in God,

Who saves the upright in heart.

¹¹God judges the just man,

But God is indignant every day.

¹²He certainly will return

And sharpen his sword.

He draws his bow

And aims it.

¹³He has also prepared his deadly weapons;

He has fashioned his arrows into burning ones.

¹⁴Look how my enemy is giving birth to iniquity

And has conceived vice

And borne falsehood.

¹⁵He has dug a hole

And hollowed it out,

But he has fallen into the pit

Which he made.

¹⁶His vice will return on his head,

And his violence will descend on his crown.

¹⁷I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness,

And I will sing psalms to the name of the Most High, the Lord.

^1aTo the choirmaster in singing set to percussion instruments.↑

A Psalm of David.

^1bO Lord our Lord,

How excellent your name is in the whole earth!

So set your majesty over the heavens.

Because of your adversaries,

To silence the enemy and avenger.

³When I see your heavens,

The work of your fingers

– The moon and the stars which you have established –

⁴I ask, “What is man,

⁶You put him in charge of the works of your hands;

⁷Sheep and oxen, all of them,

And also the beasts of the field,

⁸Birds of the sky

And fish of the sea

And whatever crosses the paths of the seas.

⁹O Lord our Lord,

How excellent your name is on the whole earth!

Reference(s) in Chapter 8: v.2 ↔ Matthew 21:16 ● v.4 ↔ Hebrews 2:6 ● v.5 ↔ Hebrews 2:7 ● v.6 ↔ 1 Corinthians 15:25, 1 Corinthians 15:27, Ephesians 1:22, Hebrews 2:7^TR, Hebrews 2:8.

^1aTo the choirmaster. The secret of the son.↑

A Psalm of David.

^1bI will praise the Lord with all my heart;

I will tell of all your wondrous deeds.

²I will rejoice and exult in you;

I will sing psalms of your most high name.

³When my enemies retreat back,

They will stumble and perish at your presence.

⁴For you will deal with my case and my right;

You will sit on the throne

Judging righteously.

⁵You will rebuke nations

And put an end to the wicked one.

You will eradicate their name

For the age and in perpetuity.

⁶O enemy, devastations will come to an end in perpetuity,

But as for the cities which you have destroyed,

The memory of them has perished.

⁷But the Lord is seated age-abidingly;

He will establish his throne of justice.

⁸And he will judge the world justly;

He will arbitrate between peoples equitably.

⁹And the Lord will be a refuge to the oppressed

– A refuge in times of affliction.

¹⁰And those who know your name will trust in you,

For you have not forsaken those who seek you,

O Lord.

¹¹Sing psalms to the Lord,

Who is seated in Zion;

Relate his deeds

Among the various peoples.

¹²For he who requites bloodshed

Remembers them.

He does not forget

The crying of the afflicted.

¹³Have mercy on me, O Lord;

Observe my affliction by those who hate me,

You who lift me up from the gates of death,

¹⁴So that I can relate all your psalms of praise

At the gates of the daughter of Zion,

And rejoice in your salvation.

¹⁵The nations will sink in the pit which they have made;

In the very net which they hid,

Their leg will be trapped.

¹⁶The Lord is known

By the justice which he executes;

The wicked man is ensnared

By the work of his own hands.

A meditation. Selah.

¹⁷The wicked will return to the grave,

As will all the nations forgetful of God.

¹⁸For the poor will not be forgotten in perpetuity,

Nor will the hope of the meek perish for eternity.

¹⁹Arise, O Lord,

Do not let man prevail;

Let the nations be judged

In your presence.

²⁰O Lord, put fear in them,

That the nations may know

That they are but man.

Selah.

¹Why, O Lord, do you stand at a distance?

Why do you hide in times of affliction?

²The wicked man in his pride

Ardently pursues the needy,

But they will be caught by the very devices

Which they contrived.

³For the wicked man boasts in his personal pleasure-seeking,

And the defrauder blasphemes

– He blasphemes the Lord.

⁴The wicked, in his arrogant pride,

Does not seek divine guidance;

God does not come into any of his machinations.

⁵They pervert his way all the time.

Your judgments are high up, aloof from him;

He rails at all his adversaries.

⁶He says in his heart,

“I will not falter,

Because from generation to generation

I will not be in difficulty.”

Under his tongue are vice and iniquity.

⁸He lies in ambush in enclosed areas,

He kills the innocent in hiding places;

His eyes lie hidden,

Fixed on the downcast.

⁹He lies in ambush in the hiding place,

Like a lion in a thicket.

He lies in an ambush

Ready to pounce on the poor;

He pounces on the poor

As he draws him into his net.

¹⁰ And he crouches and keeps low,

And by his dominance

The strength of the downcast fails.

¹¹He says in his heart,

“God forgets,

He is hiding his face;

He will never look.”

¹²Arise, O Lord;

O God lift up your hand.

Do not forget the afflicted.

¹³Why does the wicked blaspheme God?

He says in his heart,

“He will not investigate it.”

¹⁴You have looked,

For you have seen sorrow and grief,

So as to requite it with your hand.

The downcast commits himself to you;

You are a helper to the orphan.

¹⁵Break the arm of the wicked and evil one;

Investigate his wickedness

Which he thinks you will not find.

¹⁶The Lord is king for the age and in perpetuity;

The nations are eliminated from his land.

¹⁷You have heard the desire of the meek, O Lord,

You will establish their heart;

Your ear has hearkened to it,

¹⁸So as to provide justice to the orphan and the afflicted.

The man from the earth

Will not cause terror any more.

Reference(s) in Chapter 10: v.7 ↔ Romans 3:14.

¹To the choirmaster.↑

A Psalm of David.

I have put my trust in the Lord.

How can you say to my inner being,

“Flee to your mountain

Like a bird”?

²For behold, the wicked draw the bow;

They attach their arrow to the string,

Ready to shoot under cover of darkness

At the upright of heart.

³If the foundations are demolished,

What can the righteous man do?

⁴The Lord is in his holy temple;

The Lord's throne is in heaven.

His eyes are looking;

His eyelids are testing the sons of Adam.

⁵The Lord tests the righteous,

But his being hates the wicked

And him who loves violence.

⁶He will rain burning coals, fire and sulphur on the wicked,

And a scorching wind will be the portion of their cup.

⁷For the righteous Lord loves righteousness,

And the upright will see his face.

^1aTo the choirmaster concerning the eighth day division choir.↑

A Psalm of David.

^1bSave, O Lord,

For the benevolent man has come to an end,

For faithfulness has ceased

Among the sons of Adam.

²Each man speaks falsehood to his neighbour;

They speak with flattering lips

And with an equivocal heart.

³The Lord will cut off all flattering lips

And the tongue that speaks bombastic words

⁴– Those who say,

“We will be great with our tongue;

Our lips are with us.

Who is lord over us?”

⁵“Because of the oppression of the poor,

Because of the groaning of the needy,

I will now rise up,

Says the Lord;

I will place him who is railed at

In safety.”

⁶The words of the Lord are pure words;

They are silver,

Refined in a crucible for the earth,

Purified seven times.

⁷You, O Lord, will guard them;

You will preserve him from this generation age-abidingly.

⁸All around, the wicked walk about,

Whilst the basest of the sons of Adam are exalted.

^1aTo the choirmaster.↑

A Psalm of David.

^1bHow long, O Lord, will you forget me entirely?

How long will you hide your face from me?

²How long must I consult within myself?

Sorrow is in my heart by day.

How long will my enemy be raised up against me?

³Look and answer me,

O Lord my God;

Light up my eyes

So that I do not sleep the sleep of death,

⁴Lest my enemy should say,

“I have prevailed over him”,

And my adversaries should rejoice

Because I totter.

⁵But I trust in your kindness;

My heart rejoices in your salvation.

⁶I will sing to the Lord,

For he has dealt favourably with me.

¹To the choirmaster.↑

A Psalm of David.

The fool has said in his heart,

“There is no God^*.”

They have acted corruptly;

They have acted abominably in deed.

²The Lord peered down from heaven

At the sons of Adam,

⁴Do all those engaged in iniquity not know?

– Those who devour my people

In the same way as they devour bread?

They do not call on the Lord.

⁵There, they had a great fear,

For God^* was with a righteous generation.

⁶You iniquitous ones have put the plans of the poor man to shame,

But the Lord is his refuge.

⁷Oh for the salvation of Israel from Zion!

When the Lord reverses the captivity of his people,

Jacob will rejoice

– Israel will be glad.

Reference(s) in Chapter 14: v.1 ↔ Romans 3:10 ● v.2 ↔ Romans 3:11 ● v.3 ↔ Romans 3:12.

¹A Psalm of David.

O Lord, who will dwell in your tent?

Who can reside on your holy mountain?

²He who walks perfectly

And does what is righteous

And speaks the truth in his heart.

³He does not slander with his tongue;

He does not do wrong to his neighbour,

And he does not utter a reproach against his kin.

⁴Anyone despised in his eyes is rejected,

But he honours those who fear the Lord.

If he swears an oath and it becomes to his detriment,

He does not alter it.

⁵He does not put his money out with interest,

And he does not accept a bribe against an innocent person.

He who behaves this way

Will never be shaken.

¹A Golden Psalm of David.

Keep guard over me, O God,

For I have put my trust in you.

²I have said to the Lord,

“You are the Lord^*,

My source of goodness.

There is nothing above you.”

³As for the holy people who are in the land

And the noble ones,

All my delight is in them.

⁴May the sorrows of those who hasten after another be multiplied.

I will not pour out their libations of blood,

And I will not take their names to my lips.

⁵The Lord is the portion of my allotment

And my cup.

You will appoint my lot.

⁶The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;

Indeed, the inheritance has been delightful for me.

⁷I will bless the Lord

Who instructs me.

Moreover, by night

My kidneys discipline me.

And there are pleasant things in perpetuity at your right hand.

Reference(s) in Chapter 16: v.8 ↔ Acts 2:25 ● v.9 ↔ Acts 2:26 ● v.10 ↔ Acts 2:27, Acts 2:31, Acts 13:35 ● v.11 ↔ Acts 2:28.

¹A Prayer of David.

Hear, O Lord, in righteousness,

Hearken to my cry;

Listen to my prayer,

Which is not with deceitful lips.

²May my justice come from your presence;

May your eyes see things that are upright.

³You have tested my heart,

You have paid a visit by night;

You have refined me and found no dross.

I have resolved that my mouth shall not transgress.

⁴As for the works of man,

By the word of your lips

I have been on guard

Against the ways of the violent man.

⁵Keep my steps on your paths,

So my steps do not falter.

⁶I have called on you,

For you answer me, O God.

Turn your ear to me;

Hear my oration.

⁷Show your wondrous kindness,

You who by your right hand save

Those who put their trust in you,

From those who rise up against them.

⁸Keep me as the apple of your eye;

Hide me in the shadow of your wings,

⁹From the wicked ones who treat me with violence

– From my mortal enemies who surround me.

¹⁰With their fatness they have closed themselves off;

With their mouth they speak haughtily.

¹¹Having followed our steps,

They have surrounded me now;

They have set their eyes

Ready to be devious on the ground.

¹²Here is a simile for this:

Like a lion that is eager to tear in pieces,

Like a young lion that crouches in hiding places.

¹³Arise, O Lord,

Confront him,

Bring him low;

Deliver my life from the wicked one

With your sword.

¹⁴Deliver me from men by your power, O Lord,

From men of the world,

Whose portion in life

Is that you fill their belly with your hidden treasure,

And their sons are satisfied,

And they leave their surplus to their children.

¹⁵As for me, I will see your face in righteousness;

I will be satisfied when I awake in your likeness.

^1aTo the choirmaster.↑

A Psalm of the servant of the Lord, of David who spoke the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from Saul's hand. ^1bAnd he said,

“I will cherish you,

O Lord, my strength.

²The Lord is my rock and my fortress

And my deliverer,

My God and my firm ground.

I will put my trust in him

– My shield and the horn of my salvation

And my high stronghold.

³I will call on the praiseworthy Lord,

And I will be saved from my enemies.

⁴The tightening grip of death surrounded me,

And the onslaughts of the reprobate alarmed me.

⁵The tightening grip of the grave encompassed me;

Deadly snares confronted me.

⁶When I was in a strait,

I called on the Lord,

And I cried out to my God.

He heard my voice from his temple,

And my cry came before him to his ears.

⁷And the earth shook and trembled,

And the foundations of mountains quaked and shook,

Because he was furious.

⁸Smoke went up in his nostrils,

And fire from his mouth came devouring;

Coals were kindled by him.

⁹And he stretched out the heavens and descended,

And thick darkness was under his feet.

¹⁰And he rode on a cherub and flew

And swooped down on the wings of the wind.

¹¹He made darkness his hiding place;

Around him as his booth

Was the darkness of water

And the thick clouds of the upper skies.

¹²At the brightness ahead of him

His thick clouds pass along

With their hail and fiery coals.

¹³And the Lord thundered in the heavens,

And the Most High sounded his voice

With hail and fiery coals.

¹⁴And he sent his arrows

And scattered them,

And he shot lightning bolts

And routed them.

¹⁵Then channels of water appeared,

And the foundations of the world were revealed

At your rebuke, O Lord

– At the blast of the wind from your nostrils.

¹⁶He sent help from on high,

And he took hold of me;

He drew me out of great waters.

¹⁷He delivered me from my strong enemy

And from those who hate me,

For they were stronger than I was.

¹⁸They confronted me on my day of distress,

But the Lord became a support for me,

¹⁹And he brought me out to a wide place;

He delivered me,

Because he delighted in me.

²⁰The Lord recompensed me

According to my righteousness;

According to the cleanness of my hands

He rewarded me.

²¹For I have kept the ways of the Lord,

And I have not committed wickedness against my God.

²²For all his injunctions were before me,

And I have not neglected his statutes.

²³And I was perfect with him,

And I kept myself from iniquity,

²⁴And the Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness

– According to the cleanness of my hands

Before his eyes.

²⁵With the kind, you will act kindly;

With the perfect man, you will act in perfection.

²⁶With the pure, you will act in purity,

But with the perverse, you will act in a convoluted way.

²⁷For you will save an afflicted people,

And you will bring haughty eyes low.

²⁸For you light up my lamp;

The Lord my God brightens my darkness.

²⁹For through you I can run through a battalion,

And through my God I can leap over a wall.

³⁰As for God, his way is perfect.

The word of the Lord has been refined.

He is a shield to all who trust in him.

³¹For who is God

Apart from the Lord?

And who is a rock,

Except for our God?

³²It is God who girds me with valour,

Who makes my way perfect,

³³Who makes my feet like those of hinds

And stands me on my heights,

³⁴Who teaches my hands the skills of war

So a copper bow can be drawn by my arms.

³⁵And you gave me the shield of your salvation,

While your right hand gives me support,

And your meekness makes me great.

³⁶You enlarged my step under me,

And my ankles did not slip.

³⁷I pursued my enemies

And caught up with them,

And I did not return

Until I had made an end of them.

³⁸I crushed them

So that they could not get up.

They fell under my feet.

³⁹And you girded me with valour for war;

You brought down my opponents under me,

⁴⁰And you gave me the neck of my enemies.

And as for those who hate me,

I cut them down.

⁴¹They cried out,

But there was no saviour;

They looked to the Lord,

But he did not answer them.

⁴²And I pulverized them like the dust,

Carried along by the wind.

I disposed of them

Like the filth of the streets.

⁴³You delivered me from the contentions of a people;

You set me at the head of nations.

A people that I did not know

Will serve me.

⁴⁴At bidding coming to their ears,

They will obey me.

Foreigners will feign obedience to me.

⁴⁵Foreigners will fade away;

They will be wrenched out of their confines.

⁴⁶How the Lord lives,

And my rock is blessed,

And the God of my salvation is exalted

⁴⁷– The God who gives me vengeance,

And who subdues peoples under me,

⁴⁸Who delivers me from my enemies.

You also raise me up above those who rise up against me;

You rescue me from the man of violence.

⁵⁰He magnifies acts of salvation of his king,

Also showing kindness to his anointed

– To David and to his seed

Age-abidingly.”

Reference(s) in Chapter 18: v.2 ↔ Hebrews 2:13 ● v.31 ↔ Mark 12:32 ● v.49 ↔ Romans 15:9.

^1aTo the choirmaster.↑

A Psalm of David.

^1bThe heavens speak of the glory of God,

And the firmament tells of the work of his hands.

²Each day utters speech,

And each night declares knowledge.

³They have no speech and they have no words;

Their sound is not something heard.

Throughout the seasons he has assigned an abode for the sun.

⁵And as a bridegroom, the sun comes out of its bridal canopy

And exults as a valiant man about to run a course.

⁶Its rising is from one end of the heavens,

And its circuit is to the other end of them.

And there is nothing hidden from its heat.

⁷The law of the Lord is perfect

In restoring a person.

The testimony of the Lord is faithful,

Making the simple-minded wise.

⁸The precepts of the Lord are upright;

They gladden the heart.

The commandment of the Lord is pure;

It enlightens the eyes.

⁹Fear of the Lord is salutary;

It endures perpetually.

The judgments of the Lord are truth;

They are altogether righteous.

¹⁰They are more to be desired than gold,

Or than a vast amount of refined gold.

And they are sweeter than honey

And honey-syrup from honeycombs.

¹¹Your servant also is warned by them;

There is great reward in keeping them.

¹²Who understands errors?

Oh acquit me from things hidden.

¹³From presumptuous sins, too, preserve your servant;

Do not let them rule over me.

Then I shall be perfect

And acquitted from great transgression.

¹⁴May the sayings of my mouth be acceptable,

And the meditation of my heart before you,

O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Reference(s) in Chapter 19: v.4 ↔ Romans 10:18.

^1aTo the choirmaster.↑

A Psalm of David.

^1bThe Lord will answer you on the day of straitness;

The name of the God of Jacob will set you on high.

²He will send you help from the sanctuary,

And he will support you from Zion.

³He will remember all your meal-offerings

And regard your burnt offering as fat.

Selah.

⁴He will give to you according to your heart's desire

And fulfil all your ambitions.

⁵Let us shout for joy in your salvation

And set up a banner in the name of our God.

The Lord will fulfil all your requests.

⁶Now I know that the Lord saves his messiah;

He will answer him from his holy heavens,

By the mighty acts of salvation of his right hand.

⁷Some bring chariots to remembrance,

And others horses,

But we the name of the Lord our God.

⁸They collapse and fall down,

But we arise

And are kept firmly upright.

⁹O Lord, save;

The king will answer us

On the day when we call.

^1aTo the choirmaster.↑

A Psalm of David.

^1bO Lord, the king will take pleasure in your strength,

And how greatly he shall rejoice in your salvation!

²You have given him his heart's desire,

And you have not withheld the request of his lips.

Selah.

³For you have gone in front of him,

With blessings of goodness;

You have put a crown of pure gold on his head.

⁴He asked you for life;

You gave him it

– Length of days,

Age-long and in perpetuity.

⁵His glory is great through your salvation;

You bestow majesty and splendour on him.

⁶For you have appointed him everlasting blessings;

You have gladdened him with happiness at your presence.

⁷For the king trusts in the Lord.

And through kindness of the Most High,

He shall not falter.

⁸Your hand will find all your enemies;

Your right hand will discover those who hate you.

⁹You will appoint them a fiery furnace

At the time of your presence.

The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath,

And fire will consume them.

¹⁰You will eliminate their fruit from the earth,

And their seed from among the sons of Adam.

¹¹For they have tendered you wickedness;

They have devised machinations,

But they will not prevail.

¹²For you have appointed them to flight;

With your bowstring you aim at their face.

¹³Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength;

Let us sing

And sing psalms of your might.

^1aTo the choirmaster at Aijeleth Shahar.↑

A Psalm of David.

Why are you far from my salvation at my roaring words?

²O God of mine, I call by day,

But you do not answer,

And at night,

But I have no quietness.

³But you are holy,

You who dwell in the places of praise of Israel.

⁴In you our fathers trusted;

They trusted,

And you rescued them.

⁵They cried out to you,

And they were delivered.

They trusted in you

And were not ashamed.

⁶But I am a worm,

And not a man

– The reproach of men

And despised by the people.

⁷All those who see me, mock me.

They open their lips;

They shake their head,

And say,

⁸“He relied on the Lord

That he would rescue him.

Let him save him,

If he has pleasure in him.”

⁹For you brought me out of the womb;

From my mother's belly you caused me to trust in my mother's breasts.

¹⁰I was cast on you from the womb;

From my mother's belly

You have been my God.

¹¹Do not be far from me,

For adversity is nearby.

For there is no-one to help.

¹²Many bulls have surrounded me;

Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.

¹³They gape at me,

Like a lion that tears and roars.

¹⁴I have been poured out like water,

And all my bones are out of joint.

My heart has become like wax;

It is melting in my inward parts.

¹⁵My strength has dried up like a shard,

And my tongue cleaves to my jaws.

You are about to reduce me to death's dust.

¹⁶For dogs have surrounded me;

The congregation of evildoers has hemmed me in,

Like a lion pinning down my hands and my feet.

They look on,

And stare at me.

¹⁹But do not you, O Lord, be far off.

Hasten, O my strength, as my help.

²⁰Deliver my life from the sword

– My most dear from the power of the dog.

²¹Save me from the mouth of the lion

And from the horns of buffaloes.

You have answered me.

²³Praise him, you who fear the Lord;

Honour him, all you seed of Jacob,

And revere him,

All you seed of Israel.

²⁴For he does not disdain or loathe the affliction of the afflicted man,

And he does not hide his face from him.

And when such a one cries out to him,

He hears it.

²⁵My praise is on account of you in a great convocation.

I will fulfil my vows

In the presence of those who fear him.

²⁶The meek will eat and be satisfied;

Those who seek him will praise the Lord.

May your heart live in perpetuity.

²⁷And all the ends of the land will remember

And return to the Lord,

And all the families of the Gentiles

Will worship before you.

²⁸For the kingdom is the Lord's,

And he is ruler over the Gentiles.

²⁹All the opulent of the earth will eat and worship;

All those who go down to the dust will bow down before him.

But he did not keep himself alive.

³⁰A seed will serve him;

It will be related concerning the Lord^* to a generation.

³¹They will come and declare his righteousness

To a people reborn,

For he will have accomplished this.

Reference(s) in Chapter 22: v.1b ↔ Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34 ● v.17 ↔ John 19:36 ● v.18 ↔ Matthew 27:35, John 19:24 ● v.22 ↔ Hebrews 2:12.

¹A Psalm of David.

The Lord is my shepherd;

I shall not lack anything.

²He has me lie down in grassy pastures;

He leads me to restful waters.

³He refreshes my inner being;

He conducts me along righteous paths

For his name's sake.

⁴Even if I walk in the Valley of the Shadow of Death,

I shall not fear evil,

For you are with me.

It is your sceptre and staff that comfort me.

⁵You have set a table before me

In the presence of my adversaries.

You have anointed my head with oil;

My cup abounds.

⁶Surely goodness and kindness will pursue me

All the days of my life,

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord

In the length of days.

¹A Psalm of David.

– The world and those who live in it.

²He founded it on the seas,

And he prepared it on running waters.

³Who can go up to the Lord's mountain,

And who can rise at his holy place?

⁴He who is of innocent hands

And pure in heart,

Who has not shown me vain impertinence

And has not sworn deceitfully.

⁵He will receive blessing from the Lord

And righteousness from the God of his salvation.

⁶This is the generation that seeks him

– Those who look for your presence, O Jacob.

Selah.

⁷Lift up your heads, O gates,

And be lifted up, O age-abiding doors,

And the king of glory will come in.

⁸Who is this king of glory?

The Lord, strong and mighty,

The Lord, mighty in battle.

⁹Lift up your heads, O gates,

And lift yourselves up, O age-abiding doors,

And the king of glory will come in.

¹⁰Who is this king of glory?

The Lord of hosts is the king of glory.

Selah.

Reference(s) in Chapter 24: v.1 ↔ 1 Corinthians 10:26, 1 Corinthians 10:28.

¹A Psalm of David.

To you, O Lord,

I direct my sentiments.

²O God of mine, in you I have trusted.

May I not be ashamed;

May my enemies not gloat over me.

³May none of those who put their hope in you be ashamed either;

Let those who act treacherously without cause be ashamed.

⁴O Lord, make your ways known to me;

Teach me your paths.

⁵Guide my steps in your truth,

And teach me,

For you are the God of my salvation.

I put my hope in you all day long.

⁶Remember your compassion and kindness, O Lord,

For they have existed since ancient time.

⁷Do not remember the sins of my youth

Nor my transgressions.

In accordance with your kindness,

Do remember me

For the sake of your goodness, O Lord.

⁸The Lord is good and upright,

On account of which he instructs sinners on the way.

⁹He guides the steps of the meek in justice,

And he teaches the meek his way.

¹⁰All the ways of the Lord are kindness and truth

To those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.

¹¹For your name's sake, O Lord,

Forgive my iniquity,

For it is great.

¹²Who is this man who fears the Lord?

He will instruct him in the way he is to choose.

¹³His very self will abide in well-being,

And his seed will inherit the earth.

¹⁴The Lord's private plan is for those who fear him,

And his covenant is to instruct them.

¹⁵My eyes are continually to the Lord,

For he will extricate my feet from the net.

¹⁶Turn to me and have mercy on me,

For I am solitary and afflicted.

¹⁷They have increased the anguish of my heart.

Deliver me out of my distress.

¹⁸See my affliction and my suffering,

And forgive all my sins.

¹⁹See how my enemies have increased,

And how they have hated me with a violent hatred.

²⁰Guard my life and deliver me;

Do not let me be ashamed,

For I have put my trust in you.

²¹Let integrity and uprightness preserve me,

For I have put my hope in you.

²²Deliver Israel, O God,

From all his adversities.

¹A Psalm of David.

Judge me, O Lord,

For I have walked in my integrity,

And I have trusted in the Lord;

I shall not stumble.

²Examine me, O Lord,

And test me.

Refine my kidneys and my heart,

³For your kindness is in front of my eyes,

And I have walked in your truth.

⁴I have not sat in collusion with vain people,

Nor will I concur with the secretive.

⁵I have hated the convocation of wrongdoers,

And I will not sit with the wicked.

⁶I will wash my hands in innocence,

So let me go round your altar, O Lord,

⁷To make declaration with a thankful voice

And to recount all your wondrous acts.

⁸O Lord, I have loved the refuge of your house

And the place of your glorious tabernacle.

⁹Do not gather my being with sinners

Nor my life with men of blood,

¹⁰In whose hands is scheming,

And whose right hand is full of bribery.

¹¹So I will walk in my integrity.

Redeem me and have mercy on me.

¹²My foot stands in uprightness,

And I will bless the Lord in the various convocations.

¹A Psalm of David.

The Lord is my light and my salvation;

Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life;

Of whom shall I be afraid?

²When evildoers approach me,

To devour my flesh

– My adversaries and my enemies –

They shall stumble and fall.

³Even if a battalion encamps against me,

My heart will not fear.

Even if a war should arise against me,

I will be confident in the situation.

⁴One thing I have requested from the Lord,

Which I seek,

Is that I should dwell in the house of the Lord

All the days of my life,

To see the Lord's pleasantness

And to contemplate his temple.

⁵For he will hide me in a booth;

On the evil day

He will conceal me in the secrecy of his tent.

He will raise me up on a rock.

⁶And now my head will be raised

Against my enemies round about me,

And I will offer in his tent the sacrifices of the battle-cry;

I will sing

And make psalm melody to the Lord.

⁷Hear me, O Lord,

As I call with my voice,

And have mercy on me,

And answer me.

⁸My heart has spoken to you.

You have said to us, “Seek my face”;

Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.

⁹Do not hide your face from me;

Do not turn your servant away in anger.

You have been my help;

Do not forsake me and do not abandon me,

O God of my salvation.

¹⁰If my father and my mother forsake me,

Then the Lord will gather me up.

¹¹Teach me, O Lord, your way,

And lead me along an equitable path,

On account of my adversaries.

¹²Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries,

For false witnesses have risen up against me

Who breathe out violence.

¹³I have believed that I will see the Lord's goodness

In the land of the living.

¹⁴Put your hope in the Lord,

Be strong,

And may he strengthen your heart,

And put your hope in the Lord.

¹A Psalm of David.

I will call on you, O Lord, my rock.

Do not turn a deaf ear to me,

Lest in being silent to me,

I should become like those

Who go down to the pit.

²Oh hear my supplications being uttered

When I shout out to you

– When I lift up my hands to your holy place of address.

³Do not draw me along with the wicked

Or perpetrators of iniquity,

Who speak peace with their neighbour,

While evil is in their heart.

⁴Render them according to their work

And according to the evil of their acts.

Render them according to the deeds of their hands;

Requite them their due.

⁵For they do not discern the works of the Lord

Nor the deeds of his hands.

He will demolish them

And not build them up.

⁶Blessed is the Lord,

For he has heard my supplications uttered.

⁷The Lord is my strength and my shield;

My heart has put its trust in him.

And I have been helped,

So my heart rejoiced,

And I will praise him with my song.

⁸The Lord is their strength,

And the stronghold of salvation is his messiah.

⁹Oh save your people,

And bless your inheritance,

And be a shepherd to them and exalt them

Age-abidingly.

¹A Psalm of David.

Ascribe what is due to the Lord,

You mighty ones

– Ascribe glory and strength to the Lord.

²Ascribe the glory of his name to the Lord;

Worship the Lord in holy splendour.

³The voice of the Lord is over the waters,

The God of glory causes thunder;

The Lord is over great waters.

⁴The voice of the Lord is with power;

The voice of the Lord is with splendour.

⁵The voice of the Lord breaks cedars;

Indeed the Lord shatters the cedars of Lebanon.

⁶And he makes them leap like a calf

– Lebanon and Sirion like the young of a buffalo.

⁷The voice of the Lord cleaves apart

With a fiery flame.

⁸The voice of the Lord shakes the desert;

The Lord shakes the desert of Kadesh.

⁹The voice of the Lord causes hinds to calve

And strips woodland bare.

And in his temple,

All of it speaks of glory.

¹⁰The Lord abode the flood,

And the Lord abides as age-abiding king.

¹¹The Lord will give strength to his people;

The Lord will bless his people with peace.

^1aA Psalm. A song for the dedication of the house of David.

^1bI will extol you, O Lord,

For you have liberated me,

And you have not given my enemies cause for joy over me.

²O Lord my God,

I cried out to you,

And you restored me.

³O Lord, you have brought my being up from the grave;

You have preserved me alive

From me going down to the pit.

⁴Sing psalms to the Lord,

You sanctified ones of his,

And give thanks at holy remembrance of him.

⁵For although there is a moment in his anger,

There is life in his good pleasure.

In the evening, weeping is prevalent,

But in the morning there is rejoicing.

⁶And I have said in my prosperity,

“I will never falter.”

⁷O Lord, in your goodwill

You established my strong mountain,

But when you hid your face,

I was terrified.

⁸O Lord, I call out to you,

And it is with the Lord^* that I plead.

⁹What profit is there in my blood

If I go down into the pit?

Does the dust give you thanks?

Does it proclaim your truth?

¹⁰Hear, O Lord,

And have mercy on me.

O Lord, be a helper to me.

¹¹You have turned my mourning into dancing for me;

You have untied my sackcloth

And girded me with joy,

¹²So that one may sing psalms of glory to you

And not be silent.

O Lord my God,

I will give you thanks age-abidingly.

^1aTo the choirmaster.↑

A Psalm of David.

^1bIn you, O Lord, I have put my trust.

Do not let me ever be ashamed;

Deliver me in your righteousness.

²Extend your ear to me;

Rescue me speedily.

Be a rock-founded stronghold to me

– A fortified building to save me.

³For you are my rock and my stronghold,

So for your name's sake,

Conduct me and lead me.

⁴Extricate me from the net

Which they have hidden for me,

For you are my fortress.

⁵I commit my spirit into your hand.

You have redeemed me,

O Lord God of truth.

⁶I have hated those who keep false idols,

And I have trusted in the Lord.

⁷I will rejoice and be happy in your kindness,

In that you have looked at my affliction;

You have known my inner self in adversities.

⁸And you have not consigned me to the hand of the enemy;

You have stood my feet in a safe place.

⁹Have mercy on me, O Lord,

For I am in straits;

My eye is ravaged with grief,

As are my mind and my body.

¹⁰For my life has been worn down with distress,

And my years with sighing.

My strength falters in my iniquity,

And my bones have wasted away.

¹¹I have been a reproach to all my adversaries,

And very much so to my neighbours,

And frightening to my acquaintances.

Those who saw me in the open

Fled from me.

¹²I have been forgotten like one deceased

– Out of mind.

I have become like an article going to waste.

¹³For I have heard the slander of many;

There was fear all round

When they plotted together against me

– When they contrived to take my life.

¹⁴But I put my trust in you, O Lord;

I have said,

“You are my God.”

¹⁵My times are in your hand.

Oh rescue me from the hand of my enemies

And those who pursue me.

¹⁶Shine your face on your servant;

Save me in your kindness.

¹⁷O Lord, do not let me be ashamed,

For I have called on you.

Let the wicked be ashamed;

Let them be silent at the grave.

¹⁸Let false-speaking lips be dumbfounded,

Which speak insolently against the righteous

In arrogance and in contempt.

¹⁹How great your goodness is

Which you have hidden away

For those who fear you,

Which you have produced for those who trust in you

In the presence of the sons of Adam!

²⁰You will hide them in the secrecy of your face;

You will conceal them in a booth from the brusque ways of man

And from hostile talk.

²¹Blessed be the Lord,

For he has shown his wonderful kindness to me

In a fortified city.

²²But I said in my haste,

“I have been cut off from the presence of your eyes.”

Truly, you have heard my supplications uttered

When I cried out to you.

²³Love the Lord, all you people of his grace.

The Lord is a guardian of the faithful,

And an abundant retributer

Of him who behaves proudly.

²⁴Be strong and may he encourage your heart,

All you who are awaiting the Lord.

¹An Instructive Psalm of David.

And in whose spirit is no deceit.

³When I was silent,

My bones wasted away

– When I roared all day long.

⁴Because day and night your hand was heavy on me,

My moisture turned into summer drought.

Selah.

⁵I acknowledge my sin to you,

And I do not hide my iniquity.

I have said,

“I will make confession concerning my transgression to the Lord”,

And you have forgiven the iniquity of my sin.

Selah.

⁶On account of this, every man of grace will pray to you

At a time when you may be found.

Surely in the flood of great waters,

They will not be able to reach him.

⁷You are my hiding place.

You keep me from adversity;

You surround me with shouts of deliverance.

Selah.

⁸“I will instruct you,

And I will teach you the way by which you will go.

I will counsel you with my eye.

⁹Do not be like the horse or like the mule,

Which cannot be made to understand,

With a bit and bridle as their trappings to control them,

Otherwise they will not come close to you.”

¹⁰The wicked will have many pains,

But as for him who trusts in the Lord,

Kindness will surround him.

¹¹Be glad in the Lord and rejoice,

You righteous,

And shout for joy,

All you upright in heart.

Reference(s) in Chapter 32: v.1 ↔ Romans 4:7 ● v.2 ↔ Romans 4:8.