Job 5:1-16

English Standard Version

5 “Call now; is there anyone who will answer you?
    To which of ^(A)the holy ones will you turn?
² Surely vexation kills the fool,
    and jealousy slays the simple.
^3 (B)I have seen the fool taking root,
    but suddenly I cursed his dwelling.
⁴ His children are ^(C)far from safety;
    they are crushed in ^(D)the gate,
    and there is no one to deliver them.
⁵ The hungry eat his harvest,
    and he takes it even out of thorns,^[a]
    and the thirsty pant^[b] after his^[c] wealth.
⁶ For affliction does not come from the dust,
    nor does trouble sprout from the ground,
⁷ but man is ^(E)born to trouble
    as the sparks fly upward.

⁸ “As for me, I would seek God,
    and to God would I commit my cause,
⁹ who ^(F)does great things and ^(G)unsearchable,
    ^(H)marvelous things without number:
¹⁰ he gives ^(I)rain on the earth
    and sends waters on the fields;
¹¹ he ^(J)sets on high those who are lowly,
    and those who mourn are lifted to safety.
¹² He ^(K)frustrates the devices of the crafty,
    so that their hands achieve no success.
¹³ He ^(L)catches the wise in their own craftiness,
    and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.
¹⁴ They meet with darkness in the daytime
    and ^(M)grope at noonday as in the night.
¹⁵ But he ^(N)saves the needy from the sword of their mouth
    and from the hand of the mighty.
¹⁶ So the poor have hope,
    and ^(O)injustice shuts her mouth.