"If someone would test a word with you, would you be offended?
But who can refrain from speaking?
Look, you have instructed many,
and you have strengthened weak hands.
Your words have raised up the one who stumbles,
and you have strengthened knees giving way.
But now it has come to you, and you are worn out;
it touches you, and you are horrified.
Is not your fear in God your confidence?
Is not your hope even the integrity of your ways?
"Think now, who has perished who is innocent?
Or where are the upright destroyed?
Just as I have seen, plowers of mischief
and sowers of trouble will reap it.
By the breath of God they perish,
and by the blast of his anger they come to an end.
The roar of the lion and the voice of a lion in its prime,
and the teeth of the young lions are broken.
The lion is perishing without prey,
and the lion’s whelps are scattered.
"And a word came stealing to me,
and my ear received the whisper from it.
Amid troubling thoughts from night visions,
at the falling of deep sleep on men,
dread met me, and trembling,
and it made many of my bones shake.
And a spirit glided before my face;
the hair of my flesh bristled.
It stood still, but I could not recognize its appearance;
a form was before my eyes;
there was a hush, and I heard a voice:
‘Can a human being be more righteous than God,
or can a man be more pure than his Maker?
Look, he does not trust in his servants
and he charges his angels with error.
How much more dwellers in clay houses,
whose foundation is in the dust?
They are crushed like a moth.
Between morning and evening they are destroyed;
without anyone regarding it they perish forever.
Is not their tent cord pulled up within them?
They die, but not in wisdom.’

"Call now, is there anyone answering you?
And to which of the holy ones will you turn?
For vexation will slay the fool,
and jealousy will kill the simple.
I have seen a fool taking root,
but suddenly I cursed his dwelling.
His children are far from deliverance,
and they are crushed in the gate,
and there is no deliverer—
whose harvest the hungry eats,
and he takes it from behind the thorns;
and the thirsty pants after their wealth.
Indeed, mischief does not come from the dust,
and trouble does not sprout from the earth.
But a human being is born to trouble,
and they soar aloft like sparks.
"But I myself will seek God,
and to God I would commit my cause.
He is doing great and unsearchable things,
marvelous things without number—
the one who is giving rain on the surface of the earth
and is sending water on the surface of the fields,
to set the lowly on high,
and those mourning are lifted to safety.
He is frustrating the devices of the crafty,
and their hands do not achieve success.
He is capturing the wise in their craftiness,
and the schemes of the wily are rushed.
In the daytime they meet with darkness,
and they grope at noon as in the night.
And he saves from the sword of their mouth,
even the poor from the hand of the strong.
So there is hope for the powerless,
and wickedness shuts its mouth.
"Look, happy is the human being whom God reproves;
and you must not despise the discipline of Shaddai,
for he himself wounds, but he binds up;
he strikes, but his hands heal.
From six troubles he will deliver you,
and in seven evil shall not touch you.
In famine he will redeem you from death,
and in war from the power of the sword.
From the scourge of the tongue you shall be hidden,
and you shall not be afraid of destruction when it comes.
At destruction and famine you shall laugh,
and you shall not fear the wild animals of the earth.
For your covenant will be with the stones of the field,
and the wild animals of the field will be at peace with you.
And you shall know that your tent is safe,
and you will inspect your fold, and you shall not be missing anything.
And you shall know that your offspring are many,
and your descendants like the vegetation of the earth.
You shall come in maturity to the grave,
as the raising up of a stack of sheaves in its season.
"Look, we have searched this out—it is true;
hear it and know it yourself."

"If only my vexation could be well weighed,
and my calamity could be lifted up together with it in the balances,
for then it would be heavier than the sand of the seas;
therefore my words have been rash,
for the arrows of Shaddai are in me;
my spirit drinks their poison;
the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
Does the wild ass bray over grass,
or the ox bellow over its fodder?
Can tasteless food be eaten without salt,
or is there taste in the white of a marshmallow plant?
I refused to touch them;
they are like food that will make me ill.
"O that my request may come,
and that God may grant my hope,
that God would decide that he would crush me,
that he would let loose his hand and kill me.
But it will still be my consolation,
and I would recoil in unrelenting pain,
for I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
What is my strength, that I should wait?
And what is my end, that I should hold out?
Or is my strength like the strength of stones?
Or is my flesh bronze?
Indeed, my help is not in me,
and any success is driven from me.
"Loyal love should come for the afflicted from his friend,
even if he forsakes the fear of Shaddai.
My companions are treacherous like a torrent-bed;
like a streambed of wadis they flow away,
which are growing dark because of ice upon them,
it will pile up snow.
In time they dry up, they disappear;
when it is hot, they vanish from their place.
The paths of their way wind around;
they go up into the wasteland, and they perish.
The caravans of Tema looked;
the traveling merchants of Sheba hope for them.
They are disappointed, because they trusted;
they came here and they are confounded.
"For now you have become such;
you see terrors, and you fear.
Is it because I have said, ‘Give to me,’
or, ‘Offer a bribe for me from your wealth’?
or, ‘Save me from the foe’s hand,’
or, ‘Ransom me from the tyrants’ hand’?
Teach me, and I myself will be silent;
and make me understand how I have gone astray.
How painful are upright words!
But what does your reproof reprove?
Do you intend to reprove my words
and consider the words of a desperate man as wind?
Even over the orphan you would cast the lot,
and you would bargain over your friend.
"Therefore be prepared, turn to me,
and I surely will not lie to your face.
Please turn, let no injustice happen;
indeed, turn, my righteousness is still intact.
Is there injustice on my tongue?
Or can my palate not discern calamity?

"Does not a human being have hard service on earth?
And are not his days like the days of a laborer?
Like a slave he longs for the shadow,
and like a laborer he waits for his wages.
So I had to inherit months of worthlessness,
and nights of misery are apportioned to me.
When I lie down, I say, ‘When shall I rise?’
But the night is long,
and I have my fill of tossing until dawn.
My body is clothed with maggots and clods of dust;
my skin hardens, then it gives way again.
"My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,
and they come to an end without hope.
Remember that my life is a breath;
my eye will not return to see good.
The eye of the one seeing me will not see me;
your eyes are upon me, but I will be gone.
A cloud vanishes, and it goes away,
so he who goes down to Sheol will not come up.
He does not return again to his house,
and his place does not recognize him again.
"Even I will not restrain my mouth;
I will speak in my spirit’s anguish;
I will complain in my inner self’s bitterness.
Am I the sea, or a sea monster,
that you set a guard over me?
When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me,
and my couch will ease my complaint,’
then you terrify me with dreams,
and with visions you terrify me.
So my inner self will choose strangling—
death more than my existence.
I loathe my life; I would not live forever;
depart from me, for my days are a breath.
"What is a human being that you make him great
and that you fix your mind on him,
so that you visit him every morning,
you test him every moment?
How long will you not turn away from me?
Or not leave me alone until I swallow my spit?
If I have sinned, what have I done to you, watcher of humanity?
Why have you made me as a target for yourself,
so that I have become a burden to myself?
And why do you not pardon my transgression
and take away my guilt?
For now I shall lie in the dust,
and you will seek me, but I will be no more."

Yahweh is king; let the peoples tremble.
He sits enthroned between the cherubim. Let the earth shake.
Yahweh is great in Zion,
and he is exalted over all the peoples.
Let them praise your great and fearful name.
He is holy.
And the strength of the king loves justice.
You have established equity;
you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.
Exalt Yahweh our God,
and worship at his footstool.
He is holy.
Moses and Aaron were among his priests;
Samuel also was among those who called on his name.
They called to Yahweh, and he answered them.
He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud.
They kept his testimonies and the statute he gave to them.
O Yahweh our God, you answered them.
You were a forgiving God to them,
but an avenger of their wrong deeds.
Exalt Yahweh our God,
and worship at his holy mountain,
for Yahweh our God is holy.

"The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord
    and of his Christ,
and he will reign forever and ever."

"We give thanks to you, Lord God All-Powerful,
    the one who is and the one who was,
because you have taken your great power
    and have begun to reign.
And the nations were angry,
    and your wrath has come,
    and the time for the dead to be judged,
and to give their reward to your slaves the prophets
    and to the saints and to the ones who fear your name,
    the small and the great,
and to destroy those who destroy the earth."