³ “Lay down a pledge for me with yourself;
    who is there who will give surety for me?^(C)
4 Since you have closed their minds to understanding,
    therefore you will not let them triumph.^(D)
5 Those who denounce friends for reward—
    the eyes of their children will fail.^(E)

⁶ “He has made me a byword of the peoples,
    and I am one before whom people spit.^(F)
7 My eye has grown dim from grief,
    and all my members are like a shadow.^(G)
8 The upright are appalled at this,
    and the innocent stir themselves up against the godless.
⁹ Yet the righteous hold to their way,
    and they who have clean hands grow stronger and stronger.^(H)
10 But you, come back now, all of you,
    and I shall not find a sensible person among you.
¹¹ My days are past; my plans are broken off,
    the desires of my heart.^(I)
12 They make night into day;
    ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’^[a]
13 If I look for Sheol as my house,
    if I spread my couch in darkness,^(J)
14 if I say to the Pit, ‘You are my father,’
    and to the worm, ‘My mother’ or ‘My sister,’^(K)
15 where then is my hope?
    Who will see my hope?^(L)
16 Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?
    Shall we descend together into the dust?”^(M)

² “How long will you hunt for words?
    Consider, and then we shall speak.
³ Why are we counted as cattle?
    Why are we stupid in your sight?^(N)
4 You who tear yourself in your anger—
    shall the earth be forsaken because of you
    or the rock be removed out of its place?^(O)

⁵ “Surely the light of the wicked is put out,
    and the flame of their fire does not shine.^(P)
6 The light is dark in their tent,
    and the lamp above them is put out.
⁷ Their strong steps are shortened,
    and their own schemes throw them down.^(Q)
8 For they are thrust into a net by their own feet,
    and they walk into a pitfall.^(R)
9 A trap seizes them by the heel;
    a snare lays hold of them.^(S)
10 A rope is hid for them in the ground,
    a trap for them in the path.^(T)
11 Terrors frighten them on every side
    and chase them at their heels.^(U)
12 Their strength is consumed by hunger,^[b]
    and calamity is ready for their stumbling.^(V)
13 By disease their skin is consumed;^[c]
    the firstborn of Death consumes their limbs.
¹⁴ They are torn from the tent in which they trusted
    and are brought to the king of terrors.^(W)
15 In their tents nothing remains;
    sulfur is scattered upon their habitations.^(X)
16 Their roots dry up beneath,
    and their branches wither above.^(Y)
17 Their memory perishes from the earth,
    and they have no name in the street.^(Z)
18 They are thrust from light into darkness
    and driven out of the world.
¹⁹ They have no offspring or descendant among their people
    and no survivor where they used to live.^(AA)
20 They of the west are appalled at their fate,
    and horror seizes those of the east.
²¹ Surely such are the dwellings of the ungodly;
    such is the place of those who do not know God.”^(AB)

² “How long will you torment me
    and break me in pieces with words?
³ These ten times you have cast reproach upon me;
    are you not ashamed to wrong me?
⁴ And even if it is true that I have erred,
    my error remains with me.^(AC)
5 If indeed you magnify yourselves against me
    and make my humiliation an argument against me,^(AD)
6 know then that God has put me in the wrong
    and closed his net around me.^(AE)
7 Even when I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I am not answered;
    I call aloud, but there is no justice.^(AF)
8 He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass,
    and he has set darkness upon my paths.^(AG)
9 He has stripped my glory from me
    and taken the crown from my head.^(AH)
10 He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone;
    he has uprooted my hope like a tree.^(AI)
11 He has kindled his wrath against me
    and counts me as his adversary.^(AJ)
12 His troops come on together;
    they have thrown up siegeworks^[d] against me
    and encamp around my tent.^(AK)

¹³ “He has put my family far from me,
    and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
¹⁴ My relatives and my close friends have failed me;
¹⁵     the guests in my house have forgotten me;
my female servants count me as a stranger;
    I have become an alien in their eyes.^(AL)
16 I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;
    I must myself plead with him.
¹⁷ My breath is repulsive to my wife;
    I am loathsome to my own family.
¹⁸ Even young children despise me;
    when I rise, they talk against me.^(AM)
19 All my intimate friends abhor me,
    and those whom I love have turned against me.^(AN)
20 My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh,
    and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.^(AO)
21 Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends,
    for the hand of God has touched me!^(AP)
22 Why do you, like God, pursue me,
    never satisfied with my flesh?^(AQ)

²³ “O that my words were written down!
    O that they were inscribed in a book!^(AR)
24 O that with an iron pen and with lead
    they were engraved on a rock forever!^(AS)
25 For I know that my vindicator^[e] lives
    and that in the end he will stand upon the earth;^(AT)
26 and after my skin has been destroyed,
    then in my flesh I shall see God,^(AU)
27 whom I shall see on my side,
    and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
    My heart faints within me!^(AV)
28 If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’
    and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’^(AW)
29 be afraid of the sword,
    for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
    so that you may know there is a judgment.”^(AX)

² “Listen! My thoughts urge me to answer
    because of the agitation within me.
³ I hear censure that insults me,
    and a spirit beyond my understanding answers me.^(AY)
4 Do you not know this from of old,
    ever since mortals were placed on earth,^(AZ)
5 that the exulting of the wicked is short
    and the joy of the godless is but for a moment?^(BA)
6 Even though they mount up high as the heavens
    and their head reaches to the clouds,^(BB)
7 they will perish forever like their own dung;
    those who have seen them will say, ‘Where are they?’
⁸ They will fly away like a dream and not be found;
    they will be chased away like a vision of the night.^(BC)
9 The eye that saw them will see them no more,
    nor will their place behold them any longer.^(BD)
10 Their children will seek the favor of the poor,
    and their hands will give back their wealth.^(BE)
11 Their bodies, once full of youth,
    will lie down in the dust with them.^(BF)

¹² “Though wickedness is sweet in their mouth,
    though they hide it under their tongues,^(BG)
13 though they are loath to let it go
    and hold it in their mouths,
¹⁴ yet their food is turned in their stomachs;
    it is the venom of asps within them.
¹⁵ They swallow down riches and vomit them up again;
    God casts them out of their bellies.
¹⁶ They will suck the poison of asps;
    the tongue of a viper will kill them.^(BH)
17 They will not look on the rivers,
    the streams flowing with honey and curds.^(BI)
18 They will give back the fruit of their toil
    and will not swallow it down;
from the profit of their trading
    they will get no enjoyment.^(BJ)
19 For they have crushed and abandoned the poor;
    they have seized a house that they did not build.^(BK)

²⁰ “For they knew no quiet in their bellies;
    in their greed they let nothing escape.^(BL)
21 There was nothing left after they had eaten;
    therefore their prosperity will not endure.^(BM)
22 In full sufficiency they will be in distress;
    all the force of misery will come upon them.
²³ To fill their belly to the full,
    God^[f] will send his fierce anger into them
    and rain it upon them as their food.^(BN)
24 They will flee from an iron weapon;
    a bronze arrow will strike them through.^(BO)
25 It is drawn forth and comes out of their body,
    and the glittering point comes out of their gall;
    terrors come upon them.^(BP)
26 Utter darkness is laid up for their treasures;
    a fire fanned by no one will devour them;
    what is left in their tent will be consumed.^(BQ)
27 The heavens will reveal their iniquity,
    and the earth will rise up against them.^(BR)
28 The possessions of their house will be carried away,
    dragged off in the day of God’s^[g] wrath.^(BS)
29 This is the portion of the wicked from God,
    the heritage decreed for them by God.”^(BT)