² If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved?
but who can withhold himself from speaking?
³ Behold, thou hast instructed many,
and thou hast strengthened the weak hands.
⁴ Thy words have upholden him that was falling,
and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.
⁵ But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest;
it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.
⁶ Is not this thy fear, thy confidence,
thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?

¹² Now a thing was secretly brought to me,
and mine ear received a little thereof.
¹³ In thoughts from the visions of the night,
when deep sleep falleth on men,
¹⁴ fear came upon me, and trembling,
which made all my bones to shake.
¹⁵ Then a spirit passed before my face;
the hair of my flesh stood up:
¹⁶ it stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof:
an image was before mine eyes, there was silence,
and I heard a voice, saying,
¹⁷ Shall mortal man be more just than God?
shall a man be more pure than his maker?
¹⁸ Behold, he put no trust in his servants;
and his angels he charged with folly:
¹⁹ how much less in them that dwell in houses of clay,
whose foundation is in the dust,
which are crushed before the moth?
²⁰ They are destroyed from morning to evening:
they perish for ever without any regarding it.
²¹ Doth not their excellency which is in them go away?
they die, even without wisdom.