He catches the wise in their own craftiness, and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.
You shall come to your grave in ripe old age, like a sheaf gathered up in its season.
“He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
My brothers are treacherous as a torrent-bed, as torrential streams that pass away,
Have I said, ‘Make me a gift’? Or, ‘From your wealth offer a bribe for me’?
Do you think that you can reprove words, when the speech of a despairing man is wind?
“Has not man a hard service on earth, and are not his days like the days of a hired hand?
Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a hired hand who looks for his wages,
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and come to their end without hope.
“Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good.
Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that you set a guard over me?
I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.
If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind? Why have you made me your mark? Why have I become a burden to you?
“How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
For we are but of yesterday and know nothing, for our days on earth are a shadow.
His confidence is severed, and his trust is a spider's web.
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, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evildoers.
“Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God?
If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times.
For he crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause;
If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?
“My days are swifter than a runner; they flee away; they see no good.
yet you will plunge me into a pit, and my own clothes will abhor me.
For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together.
Are your days as the days of man, or your years as a man's years,
And were my head lifted up, you would hunt me like a lion and again work wonders against me.
Are not my days few? Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer
“Should a multitude of words go unanswered, and a man full of talk be judged right?
But a stupid man will get understanding when a wild donkey's colt is born a man!
I am a laughingstock to my friends; I, who called to God and he answered me, a just and blameless man, am a laughingstock.
If he tears down, none can rebuild; if he shuts a man in, none can open.
He looses the bonds of kings and binds a waistcloth on their hips.
He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth and makes them wander in a trackless waste.
They grope in the dark without light, and he makes them stagger like a drunken man.
Will it be well with you when he searches you out? Or can you deceive him, as one deceives a man?
Will you frighten a driven leaf and pursue dry chaff?
You put my feet in the stocks and watch all my paths; you set a limit for the soles of my feet.
Man wastes away like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.
“Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble.
He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not.
And do you open your eyes on such a one and bring me into judgment with you?
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.
look away from him and leave him alone, that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.
“For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease.
yet at the scent of water it will bud and put out branches like a young plant.
But a man dies and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he?
As waters fail from a lake and a river wastes away and dries up,
so a man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep.
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
ESV® Permanent Text Edition (2016). The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers.
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