² “If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?
    But who can keep from speaking?^(B)
3 Think how you have instructed many,^(C)
    how you have strengthened feeble hands.^(D)
4 Your words have supported those who stumbled;^(E)
    you have strengthened faltering knees.^(F)
5 But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged;^(G)
    it strikes^(H) you, and you are dismayed.^(I)
6 Should not your piety be your confidence^(J)
    and your blameless^(K) ways your hope?

⁷ “Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished?^(L)
    Where were the upright ever destroyed?^(M)
8 As I have observed,^(N) those who plow evil^(O)
    and those who sow trouble reap it.^(P)
9 At the breath of God^(Q) they perish;
    at the blast of his anger they are no more.^(R)
10 The lions may roar^(S) and growl,
    yet the teeth of the great lions^(T) are broken.^(U)
11 The lion perishes for lack of prey,^(V)
    and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.^(W)

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