When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I arise?’ But the night is long, and I am full of tossing till the dawn.
The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more; while your eyes are on me, I shall be gone.
As the cloud fades and vanishes, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up;
“Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that you set a guard over me?
Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth; you will seek me, but I shall not be.”
Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
“How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right?
If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.
If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy,
“For inquire, please, of bygone ages, and consider what the fathers have searched out.
Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless shall perish.
He is a lush plant before the sun, and his shoots spread over his garden.
His roots entwine the stone heap; he looks upon a house of stones.
Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the soil others will spring.
“Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evildoers.
Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”
“Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God?
who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble;
who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars;
who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea;
who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;
“God will not turn back his anger; beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab.
Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.
Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.
It is all one; therefore I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’
When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.
The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges— if it is not he, who then is it?
They go by like skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping on the prey.
“I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the designs of the wicked?
Are your days as the days of man, or your years as a man's years,
Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to the dust?
If I am guilty, woe to me! If I am in the right, I cannot lift up my head, for I am filled with disgrace and look on my affliction.
“Why did you bring me out from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me
and were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave.
before I go—and I shall not return— to the land of darkness and deep shadow,
the land of gloom like thick darkness, like deep shadow without any order, where light is as thick darkness.”
Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:
and that he would tell you the secrets of wisdom! For he is manifold in understanding. Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves.
“Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?
Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.
If he passes through and imprisons and summons the court, who can turn him back?
And your life will be brighter than the noonday; its darkness will be like the morning.
But the eyes of the wicked will fail; all way of escape will be lost to them, and their hope is to breathe their last.”
“No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you.
In the thought of one who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune; it is ready for those whose feet slip.
The tents of robbers are at peace, and those who provoke God are secure, who bring their god in their hand.
“But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you;
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