³ Though you probe my heart,
    though you examine me at night and test me,
you will find that I have planned no evil;
    my mouth has not transgressed.
⁴ Though people tried to bribe me,
    I have kept myself from the ways of the violent
    through what your lips have commanded.
⁵ My steps have held to your paths;
    my feet have not stumbled.

² ‘If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?
    But who can keep from speaking?
³ Think how you have instructed many,
    how you have strengthened feeble hands.
⁴ Your words have supported those who stumbled;
    you have strengthened faltering knees.
⁵ But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged;
    it strikes you, and you are dismayed.
⁶ Should not your piety be your confidence
    and your blameless ways your hope?

⁷ ‘Consider now: who, being innocent, has ever perished?
    Where were the upright ever destroyed?
⁸ As I have observed, those who plough evil
    and those who sow trouble reap it.
⁹ At the breath of God they perish;
    at the blast of his anger they are no more.
¹⁰ The lions may roar and growl,
    yet the teeth of the great lions are broken.
¹¹ The lion perishes for lack of prey,
    and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

¹² ‘A word was secretly brought to me,
    my ears caught a whisper of it.
¹³ Amid disquieting dreams in the night,
    when deep sleep falls on people,
¹⁴ fear and trembling seized me
    and made all my bones shake.
¹⁵ A spirit glided past my face,
    and the hair on my body stood on end.
¹⁶ It stopped,
    but I could not tell what it was.
A form stood before my eyes,
    and I heard a hushed voice:
¹⁷ “Can a mortal be more righteous than God?
    Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker?
¹⁸ If God places no trust in his servants,
    if he charges his angels with error,
¹⁹ how much more those who live in houses of clay,
    whose foundations are in the dust,
    who are crushed more readily than a moth!
²⁰ Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces;
    unnoticed, they perish for ever.
²¹ Are not the cords of their tent pulled up,
    so that they die without wisdom?”

5 ‘Call if you will, but who will answer you?
    To which of the holy ones will you turn?
² Resentment kills a fool,
    and envy slays the simple.
³ I myself have seen a fool taking root,
    but suddenly his house was cursed.
⁴ His children are far from safety,
    crushed in court without a defender.
⁵ The hungry consume his harvest,
    taking it even from among thorns,
    and the thirsty pant after his wealth.
⁶ For hardship does not spring from the soil,
    nor does trouble sprout from the ground.
⁷ Yet man is born to trouble
    as surely as sparks fly upwards.

⁸ ‘But if I were you, I would appeal to God;
    I would lay my cause before him.
⁹ He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed,
    miracles that cannot be counted.
¹⁰ He provides rain for the earth;
    he sends water on the countryside.
¹¹ The lowly he sets on high,
    and those who mourn are lifted to safety.
¹² He thwarts the plans of the crafty,
    so that their hands achieve no success.
¹³ He catches the wise in their craftiness,
    and the schemes of the wily are swept away.
¹⁴ Darkness comes upon them in the daytime;
    at noon they grope as in the night.
¹⁵ He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth;
    he saves them from the clutches of the powerful.
¹⁶ So the poor have hope,
    and injustice shuts its mouth.

¹⁷ ‘Blessed is the one whom God corrects;
    so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.^[a]
18 For he wounds, but he also binds up;
    he injures, but his hands also heal.
¹⁹ From six calamities he will rescue you;
    in seven no harm will touch you.
²⁰ In famine he will deliver you from death,
    and in battle from the stroke of the sword.
²¹ You will be protected from the lash of the tongue,
    and need not fear when destruction comes.
²² You will laugh at destruction and famine,
    and need not fear the wild animals.
²³ For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field,
    and the wild animals will be at peace with you.
²⁴ You will know that your tent is secure;
    you will take stock of your property and find nothing missing.
²⁵ You will know that your children will be many,
    and your descendants like the grass of the earth.
²⁶ You will come to the grave in full vigour,
    like sheaves gathered in season.

²⁷ ‘We have examined this, and it is true.
    So hear it and apply it to yourself.’

² ‘If only my anguish could be weighed
    and all my misery be placed on the scales!
³ It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas –
    no wonder my words have been impetuous.
⁴ The arrows of the Almighty are in me,
    my spirit drinks in their poison;
    God’s terrors are marshalled against me.
⁵ Does a wild donkey bray when it has grass,
    or an ox bellow when it has fodder?
⁶ Is tasteless food eaten without salt,
    or is there flavour in the sap of the mallow^[b]?
⁷ I refuse to touch it;
    such food makes me ill.

⁸ ‘Oh, that I might have my request,
    that God would grant what I hope for,
⁹ that God would be willing to crush me,
    to let loose his hand and cut off my life!
¹⁰ Then I would still have this consolation –
    my joy in unrelenting pain –
    that I had not denied the words of the Holy One.

¹¹ ‘What strength do I have, that I should still hope?
    What prospects, that I should be patient?
¹² Do I have the strength of stone?
    Is my flesh bronze?
¹³ Do I have any power to help myself,
    now that success has been driven from me?

¹⁴ ‘Anyone who withholds kindness from a friend
    forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
¹⁵ But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams,
    as the streams that overflow
¹⁶ when darkened by thawing ice
    and swollen with melting snow,
¹⁷ but that stop flowing in the dry season,
    and in the heat vanish from their channels.
¹⁸ Caravans turn aside from their routes;
    they go off into the wasteland and perish.
¹⁹ The caravans of Tema look for water,
    the travelling merchants of Sheba look in hope.
²⁰ They are distressed, because they had been confident;
    they arrive there, only to be disappointed.
²¹ Now you too have proved to be of no help;
    you see something dreadful and are afraid.
²² Have I ever said, “Give something on my behalf,
    pay a ransom for me from your wealth,
²³ deliver me from the hand of the enemy,
    rescue me from the clutches of the ruthless”?

²⁴ ‘Teach me, and I will be quiet;
    show me where I have been wrong.
²⁵ How painful are honest words!
    But what do your arguments prove?
²⁶ Do you mean to correct what I say,
    and treat my desperate words as wind?
²⁷ You would even cast lots for the fatherless
    and barter away your friend.

²⁸ ‘But now be so kind as to look at me.
    Would I lie to your face?
²⁹ Relent, do not be unjust;
    reconsider, for my integrity is at stake.^[c]
30 Is there any wickedness on my lips?
    Can my mouth not discern malice?

7 ‘Do not mortals have hard service on earth?
    Are not their days like those of hired labourers?
² Like a slave longing for the evening shadows,
    or a hired labourer waiting to be paid,
³ so I have been allotted months of futility,
    and nights of misery have been assigned to me.
⁴ When I lie down I think, “How long before I get up?”
    The night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn.
⁵ My body is clothed with worms and scabs,
    my skin is broken and festering.

⁶ ‘My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,
    and they come to an end without hope.
⁷ Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath;
    my eyes will never see happiness again.
⁸ The eye that now sees me will see me no longer;
    you will look for me, but I will be no more.
⁹ As a cloud vanishes and is gone,
    so one who goes down to the grave does not return.
¹⁰ He will never come to his house again;
    his place will know him no more.

¹¹ ‘Therefore I will not keep silent;
    I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit,
    I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
¹² Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep,
    that you put me under guard?
¹³ When I think my bed will comfort me
    and my couch will ease my complaint,
¹⁴ even then you frighten me with dreams
    and terrify me with visions,
¹⁵ so that I prefer strangling and death,
    rather than this body of mine.
¹⁶ I despise my life; I would not live for ever.
    Let me alone; my days have no meaning.

¹⁷ ‘What is mankind that you make so much of them,
    that you give them so much attention,
¹⁸ that you examine them every morning
    and test them every moment?
¹⁹ Will you never look away from me,
    or let me alone even for an instant?
²⁰ If I have sinned, what have I done to you,
    you who see everything we do?
Why have you made me your target?
    Have I become a burden to you?^[d]
21 Why do you not pardon my offences
    and forgive my sins?
For I shall soon lie down in the dust;
    you will search for me, but I shall be no more.’