² “Should ^(B)a wise man answer with ^(C)windy knowledge,
    and fill his ^(D)belly with ^(E)the east wind?
³ Should he argue in unprofitable talk,
    or in words with which he can do no good?
⁴ But you are doing away with the fear of God^[a]
    and hindering meditation before God.
⁵ For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
    and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
⁶ Your ^(F)own mouth condemns you, and not I;
    ^(G)your own lips testify against you.

^7 (H)“Are you the first man who was born?
    Or ^(I)were you brought forth ^(J)before the hills?
⁸ Have you listened in ^(K)the council of God?
    And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
^9 (L)What do you know that we do not know?
    What do you understand that is not clear to us?
^10 (M)Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us,
    older than your father.
¹¹ Are the comforts of God too small for you,
    or the word that deals gently with you?
¹² Why does your heart carry you away,
    and why do your eyes flash,
¹³ that you turn your ^(N)spirit against God
    and bring such words out of your mouth?
^14 (O)What is man, ^(P)that he can be pure?
    Or he who is ^(Q)born of a woman, that he can be righteous?
¹⁵ Behold, God^{[b] (R)}puts no trust in his ^(S)holy ones,
    and the heavens are not pure in his sight;
^16 (T)how much less one who is abominable and ^(U)corrupt,
    a man who ^(V)drinks injustice like water!

¹⁷ “I will show you; hear me,
    and what I have seen I will declare
¹⁸ (what wise men have told,
    without hiding it ^(W)from their fathers,
¹⁹ to whom alone the land was given,
    and no ^(X)stranger passed among them).
²⁰ The wicked man writhes in pain all his days,
    through all the ^(Y)years that are laid up for ^(Z)the ruthless.
^21 (AA)Dreadful sounds are in his ears;
    in ^(AB)prosperity the destroyer will come upon him.
²² He does not believe that he will return out of darkness,
    and he is marked for the sword.
²³ He ^(AC)wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
    He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand;
²⁴ distress and anguish terrify him;
    they ^(AD)prevail against him, like a king ready for battle.
²⁵ Because he has stretched out his hand against God
    and defies the Almighty,
^26 (AE)running ^(AF)stubbornly against him
    with a thickly bossed shield;
²⁷ because he has ^(AG)covered his face with his fat
    and gathered fat upon his waist
²⁸ and has lived in desolate cities,
    in houses that none should inhabit,
    which were ready to become heaps of ruins;
²⁹ he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure,
    nor will his possessions spread over the earth;^[c]
30 he will not depart from darkness;
    the flame will dry up his shoots,
    and by ^(AH)the breath of his mouth he will depart.
³¹ Let him not ^(AI)trust in emptiness, deceiving himself,
    for emptiness will be his payment.
³² It will be paid in full ^(AJ)before his time,
    and his branch will not be green.
³³ He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine,
    and cast off his blossom like the olive tree.
³⁴ For ^(AK)the company of the godless is barren,
    and ^(AL)fire consumes the tents of bribery.
³⁵ They ^(AM)conceive trouble and give birth to evil,
    and their ^(AN)womb prepares deceit.”

² “I have heard ^(AO)many such things;
    ^(AP)miserable comforters are you all.
³ Shall ^(AQ)windy words have an end?
    Or what provokes you that you answer?
⁴ I also could speak as you do,
    if you were in my place;
I could join words together against you
    and ^(AR)shake my head at you.
⁵ I could strengthen you with my mouth,
    and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

⁶ “If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,
    and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?
⁷ Surely now God has worn me out;
    ^(AS)he has^[d] made desolate all my company.
⁸ And he has shriveled me up,
    which is ^(AT)a witness against me,
and my ^(AU)leanness has risen up against me;
    it testifies to my face.
⁹ He has ^(AV)torn me in his wrath ^(AW)and hated me;
    he has ^(AX)gnashed his teeth at me;
    my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
¹⁰ Men have ^(AY)gaped at me with their mouth;
    they have ^(AZ)struck me insolently on the cheek;
    they ^(BA)mass themselves together against me.
¹¹ God gives me up to the ungodly
    and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
¹² I was at ease, and he broke me apart;
    he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he set me up as his ^(BB)target;
¹³     his ^(BC)archers surround me.
He slashes open my kidneys ^(BD)and does not spare;
    he ^(BE)pours out my gall on the ground.
¹⁴ He breaks me with ^(BF)breach upon breach;
    he ^(BG)runs upon me like a warrior.
¹⁵ I have sewed ^(BH)sackcloth upon my skin
    and have laid ^(BI)my strength ^(BJ)in the dust.
¹⁶ My face is red with weeping,
    and on my eyelids is ^(BK)deep darkness,
¹⁷ although there is no ^(BL)violence in my hands,
    and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸ “O earth, ^(BM)cover not my blood,
    and let my ^(BN)cry find no resting place.
¹⁹ Even now, behold, my ^(BO)witness is in heaven,
    and he who testifies for me is ^(BP)on high.
²⁰ My friends ^(BQ)scorn me;
    my eye pours out tears to God,
²¹ that he would ^(BR)argue the case of a man with God,
    as^[e] a son of man does with his neighbor.
²² For when a few years have come
    I shall go the way ^(BS)from which I shall not return.

³⁸ But now you have ^(I)cast off and rejected;
    you are full of wrath against your ^(J)anointed.
³⁹ You have ^(K)renounced ^(L)the covenant with your servant;
    you have ^(M)defiled his ^(N)crown in the dust.
⁴⁰ You have ^(O)breached all his walls;
    you have laid his strongholds in ruins.
^41 (P)All who pass by plunder him;
    he has become ^(Q)the scorn of his neighbors.