² “If someone ventures to talk with you, will you be grieved?
    But who can withhold himself from speaking?
³ Behold, you have instructed many,
    you have strengthened the weak hands.
⁴ Your words have supported him who was falling,
    you have made the feeble knees firm.
⁵ But now it has come to you, and you faint.
    It touches you, and you are troubled.
⁶ Isn’t your piety your confidence?
    Isn’t the integrity of your ways your hope?

⁷ “Remember, now, who ever perished, being innocent?
    Or where were the upright cut off?
⁸ According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity
    and sow trouble, reap the same.
⁹ By the breath of God they perish.
    By the blast of his anger are they consumed.
¹⁰ The roaring of the lion,
    and the voice of the fierce lion,
    the teeth of the young lions, are broken.
¹¹ The old lion perishes for lack of prey.
    The cubs of the lioness are scattered abroad.

¹² “Now a thing was secretly brought to me.
    My ear received a whisper of it.
¹³ In thoughts from the visions of the night,
    when deep sleep falls on men,
¹⁴ fear came on me, and trembling,
    which made all my bones shake.
¹⁵ Then a spirit passed before my face.
    The hair of my flesh stood up.
¹⁶ It stood still, but I couldn’t discern its appearance.
    A form was before my eyes.
    Silence, then 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 puts no trust in his servants.
    He charges his angels with error.
¹⁹ How much more those who dwell in houses of clay,
    whose foundation is in the dust,
    who are crushed before the moth!
²⁰ Between morning and evening they are destroyed.
    They perish forever without any regarding it.
²¹ Isn’t their tent cord plucked up within them?
    They die, and that without wisdom.’