Beginning

⁷ If someone cuts down a tree,
    the tree may not die.
    New branches may grow from it.
⁸ Its roots in the ground may be old.
    The part of the tree that remains may be nearly dead.
⁹ But if only a little water comes near to it,
    it will start to grow again.
It will make new branches,
    like a young plant.
¹⁰ But when people lose their strength and they die,
    that is the end.
    After they die, where do they go?
¹¹ When the water disappears from a lake or a river,
    they become dry.
¹² It is the same with people when they die.
    They will never rise to live again.
As long as the sky remains above the earth,
    they will continue to sleep in death.

¹³ Please hide me in the place where dead people go!
    Hide me there until you are no longer angry.
Decide how long I must be there,
    and then remember me again!
¹⁴ If a man dies, will he live again?
    If I knew that, I would suffer patiently.
    I would wait until my troubles have finished.
¹⁵ You would call me and I would answer you.
You would want to see me again,
    because your own hands created me.
¹⁶ You would watch me carefully,
    but you would not make a note of my sins.
¹⁷ You would forgive me for my sins.
    You would hide them away.

¹⁸ But mountains fall down and they break into pieces,
    Rocks fall down from their places.
¹⁹ Stones become sand when water pours over them.
    Floods wash away soil.
In the same way, you remove hope from a person's life.
²⁰ Finally, you bring his life to an end.
    He leaves this world.
You change his face in death
    and you send him away.
²¹ If his sons become famous,
    he does not know about it.
If they become ashamed,
    he does not know that either.
²² A dead person thinks only about himself.
    He feels his own pain and he is very sad.’

² ‘If you were wise,
    you would not answer us with such silly ideas.
The words that come out from inside you are only a hot wind!
³ No wise man would argue in such a useless way.
    The things that you say do not mean anything.
⁴ You show that you do not respect God.
    You turn other people away from him.
⁵ It is your sin that causes you to speak like that.
    You try to say clever things that will deceive people.
⁶ I do not need to show that you are guilty.
    Your own words show that you are wrong.
⁷ You were not the first human to be born.
    You were not alive when God made the hills.
⁸ You do not know God's secret plans.
    You are not the only wise person in the world.
⁹ You do not know any more than we know.
    We understand as much as you do.
¹⁰ The old men agree with us.
    They are older and wiser even than your father.
¹¹ You think that God's kind words are not important.
    But they should be enough for you.
¹² You have allowed your thoughts to confuse you.
    We can see in your eyes that you are very angry.
¹³ Why are you so angry against God?
    You should not say such wicked things.
¹⁴ No one who is human can be truly pure and righteous.
¹⁵ God does not even trust his own angels.
    He knows that they make mistakes.
¹⁶ So he certainly will not trust people.
    People are wicked and cannot think true thoughts.
They like to do evil things,
    as if they are drinking water!

¹⁷ So listen to me. I will explain something to you.
    I will tell you what I have seen.
¹⁸ These are things that wise men have taught me.
    They did not hide the truth.
They learned these things from their ancestors.
¹⁹ They were the people who received the land.
    No foreigners were there to deceive them.
²⁰ They knew this:
    A wicked person will have trouble all his life.
    Anyone who is cruel will suffer every year that he lives.
²¹ He will hear things that frighten him.
He may think that he is safe,
    but robbers will attack him.
²² He is afraid to go out in the dark.
    He thinks that someone may kill him.
²³ The wicked person walks about to look for food.
    He says, “Where is it?”
He knows that he cannot escape from trouble.
²⁴     He is afraid and confused.
Trouble is ready to attack him,
    like a king with his army.
²⁵ That happens to the person who turns against God.
    He thinks that he is greater than Almighty God.
²⁶ He is proud enough to attack God.
    He holds a big shield as he runs to attack God!
²⁷ He eats too much
    and his whole body is very fat.^[b]
28 He lives in a town that is empty.
    No one else lives in the houses there.
The buildings will soon fall down
    and they will become heaps of stones.
²⁹ He will not be rich.
    He will lose his valuable things.
    Everything that he has will disappear.
³⁰ When it becomes dark,
    he will not be able to escape.
He will be like a tree that fire has burned.
    God's breath will blow him away!
³¹ He may trust in useless things to save him.
    But he is deceiving himself.
Any help that he receives will also be useless.
³² Before he is old,
    his life will end.
Like a tree that makes no leaves,
    he will have no success in life.
³³ He will be like a vine that loses its grapes.
    They fall off before they are ready to eat.
He will be like an olive tree that loses its flowers,
    so that no olives grow on it.
³⁴ People who turn away from God are like that.
    They have no family to live after them.
If they use the money from bribes to build their homes,
    fire will destroy those homes.
³⁵ They make plans to cause trouble,
    so that evil things happen.
Lies are what come out from inside them.’

² ‘I have heard all these things before.
You are not making my troubles any better.
    You are making them worse!
³ Please stop speaking useless words.
    Why do you talk to me like that?
⁴ If you were suffering like I am,
    I could say the same things to you.
I could speak for a long time
    about the wrong things that you have done.
I could shake my head
    and laugh at you.
⁵ But, instead, I would help you to be strong.
    I would say things to comfort you.

⁶ But now, if I speak,
    my pain does not become any better.
If I stop speaking,
    my pain continues to be there.
⁷ God, you have made me very weak.
    You have destroyed my family.
⁸ You have taken hold of me.
Because of my troubles,
    people think that I am guilty.
Because my body is so thin,
    people think that I have done bad things.
⁹ God attacks me and he punishes me because he is angry.
    He shows his anger like a wild animal.
He has become my enemy.
¹⁰ People insult me and they laugh at me.
    They hit me on my face.
They all join together to attack me.
¹¹ God has allowed evil men to take hold of me.
    He has put me under the power of wicked men.
¹² I was living in peace,
    but then God destroyed me.
He took hold of my neck
    and he shook me to pieces.
He decided to shoot his arrows at me.
¹³ His arrows come from all around me.
    They go deep into my body
    and my blood pours out on the ground.
But God still does not feel sorry for me.
¹⁴ He attacks me again and again.
    He rushes to attack me like a strong fighter.
¹⁵ I have used sackcloth to make my clothes.^[d]
I am no longer proud of my strength,
    and I sit in the dust.
¹⁶ I have cried so much that my face is red.
    There are dark circles around my eyes.
¹⁷ But I have not been cruel.
    And when I pray, I speak honestly to God.

¹⁸ The earth should not hide my blood!
    People should remember how I have suffered.
    They should not forget that I asked for justice.
¹⁹ But even now, I know that I have a friend in heaven.
    He knows that I am not guilty.
    He speaks on my behalf.
²⁰ My friends have turned against me.
    I cry with many tears as I pray to God.
²¹ I need someone to speak to God on my behalf.
He should ask God not to punish me,
    as someone might try to help his friends.

²² I only have a few more years to live.
I will die and I will never again return to this earth.