² “If one attempts a word with you, will you be impatient?
    But who can keep from speaking?
³ Surely you have instructed many,
    and you have strengthened the weak hands.
⁴ Your words have raised up him who was falling,
    and you have fortified the feeble knees.
⁵ But now it comes upon you, and you are weary;
    it reaches even you, and you are terrified.
⁶ Is not your reverence your confidence?
    And the integrity of your ways your hope?

⁷ “Remember now, who being innocent ever perished?
    Or where were the upright ever wiped out?
⁸ Just like I have seen, those who plow iniquity
    and sow trouble, reap the same.
⁹ By the breath of God they perish,
    and by the blast of His anger they are destroyed.
¹⁰ The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion,
    and the teeth of the young lions are broken.
¹¹ The old lion perishes for lack of prey,
    and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

¹² “Now a word was brought to me secretly,
    and my ear received a whisper of it.
¹³ Amid disquieting thoughts from night visions,
    when deep sleep falls on mortals,
¹⁴ terror and trembling came to me,
    which made all my bones shake.
¹⁵ A breath of wind was passing before my face,
    and the hair on my body was standing up.
¹⁶ It stood still,
    but I could not recognize its appearance;
a form was in front of my eyes,
    there was stillness, then I heard a voice saying:
¹⁷ ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God?
    Can a man be more pure than his Maker?
¹⁸ He does not trust in His servants,
    and He charges His angels with error;
¹⁹ Even more, those who dwell in houses of clay,
    whose foundation is in the dust,
    who are crushed before the moth.
²⁰ They are broken in pieces from morning to evening;
    they perish forever without anyone regarding it.
²¹ Are not their tent ropes plucked up,
    so they die, even without wisdom?’