"Indeed, there is a mine for silver
and a place for gold to be refined.
Iron is taken from dust,
and he pours out copper from ore.
He puts an end to darkness,
and he searches out the farthest limits
for the ore in gloom and deep shadow.
He breaks open a mine shaft away from where people dwell;
those who are forgotten by travelers,
they dangle, they sway far away from human beings.
As for the earth, from it comes food,
but underneath it, it is turned up as by fire.
Its stones are the place of sapphire,
and the earthen dirt has gold.
"It is a path a bird of prey does not know
and the black kite’s eye has not seen.
Proud wild animals have not trodden it;
the lion in its prime has not prowled over it.
He puts his hand on the hard rock;
he overturns mountains by the roots.
He cuts out tunnels in the rocks,
and his eye sees every treasure.
He dams up rivers from their sources,
and he brings secret things to the light.
"But from where will wisdom be found?
And where in the world is the place of understanding?
A human being does not know its proper value,
and it is not found in the land of the living.
The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’
and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’
"Refined gold cannot be gotten in its place,
and silver cannot be weighed out as its price.
It cannot be bought for the gold of Ophir,
for precious onyx or sapphire.
Gold and glass cannot be compared with it,
and its substitution cannot be an ornament of refined gold.
Black corals and crystal will not be mentioned,
and wisdom’s price is more than red corals.
The topaz of Cush cannot be compared with it;
it cannot be bought for pure gold.
Indeed, from where does wisdom come?
And where in the world is the place of understanding?
It is hidden from the eyes of all living,
and it is concealed from the birds of the heaven.
Abaddon and Death say,
‘We heard its rumor with our ears.’
"God understands its way,
and he knows its place,
for he himself looks to the end of the earth;
he sees under all the heaven.
When he gave weight to the wind
and he apportioned the waters by measure,
when he made a rule for the rain
and a way for the thunder’s lightning bolt,
then he saw it and talked about it;
he established it, and moreover, he explored it.
And to the human beings he said,
‘Look, the fear of the Lord is wisdom,
and to depart from evil is understanding.’"

"O that I were as in the months before,
as in the days when God watched over me,
when his shining lamp was over my head—
by his light I walked through darkness—
as when I was in the days of my prime,
when God’s confiding was over my house,
when Shaddaiwas still with me,
my children were all around me,
when my paths were washed in sour milk,
and the rock poured out streams of oil for me.
"At my going out the gate to the city,
I secured my seat in the square.
Young men saw me and stepped aside,
and the aged rose up and stood.
Officials refrained from talking,
and they laid their hand on their mouth.
The voices of nobles were hushed,
and their tongue stuck to their palate.
"When the ear heard and commended me,
and the eye saw and testified in support of me
because I saved the needy who cried for help,
and I saved the orphan for whom there was no helper.
The blessing of the wretched came upon me,
and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;
my justice was like a robe and a headband.
"I was eyes to the blind,
and I was feet to the lame.
I was a father to the poor,
and I investigated the stranger’s legal dispute.
And I broke the evil one’s jaw bones,
and I made his prey drop from his teeth.
"And I thought, ‘I will pass away in my nest,
and like the phoenix I shall multiply my days.
My roots were open to water,
and dew spent the night on my branches;
My glory was new with me,
and I was revitalized regularly.’
"They listened to me and waited,
and they kept silent for my counsel.
After my word, they did not speak again,
and my word dropped down like dew upon them.
And they waited for me as for the rain,
and they opened their mouth wide as for the spring rain.
I smiled for them when they had no confidence in anything,
and they did not extinguish the light of my face.
I chose their way, and I sat as head,
and I dwelled like a king among the troops,
like one who comforts mourners.

"But now those younger than I, as far as days, laugh at me,
whose fathers I rejected for setting with the dogs of my sheep and goats.
Moreover, what use to me is the strength of their hands?
With them, vigor is destroyed.
Through want and through barren hunger
they are gnawing in the dry region in the darkness of desolation and waste.
They are picking salt herbs, the leaves of bushes,
and the roots of broom trees to warm themselves.
They were driven out from fellow people;
they shout at them as at a thief,
so that they dwell
in holes of the ground and in the rocks.
They bray among the bushes;
they are gathered under the nettles.
A senseless crowd, yes, a disreputable brood,
they were cast out from the land.
"But now I am their mocking song,
and I have become a byword for them.
They abhor me; they keep aloof from me,
and they do not withhold spit from my face
because he has loosened his bowstring and humbled me,
and they have thrown off restraint in my presence.
On the right hand the brood rises up;
they put me to flight,
and they build up their siege ramps against me.
They destroy my path;
they promote my destruction;
they have no helper.
As through a wide breach they come;
amid a crash they rush on.
Terrors are turned upon me;
my honor is pursued as by the wind,
and my hope of deliverance passed by like a cloud.
"And now my life is poured out onto me;
days of misery have taken hold of me.
At night I am in great pain;
my pains do not take a rest.
He seizes my clothing with great power;
he grasps me by my tunic’s collar.
He has cast me into the dirt,
and I have become like dust and ashes.
I cry to you for help, but you do not answer me;
I stand, and you merely look at me.
You have turned cruel to me;
you persecute me with your hand’s might.
You lift me up to the wind—you make me ride it,
and you toss me about in the storm.
Indeed, I know that you will bring me to death
and to the house of assembly for all the living.
"Surely someone must not send a hand against the needy
when, in his misfortune, there is a cry of help for them.
Have I not wept for the unfortunate,
and grieved myself over the poor?
Indeed, I hoped for good, but evil came,
and I waited for light, but darkness came.
My bowels are in turmoil, and they are not still;
days of misery come to confront me.
I go about in mourning garb, but not in sunlight;
I stand up in the assembly, and I cry for help.
I am a companion for the jackals
and a companion for ostriches.
My skin turns black on me,
and my bones burn with heat.
So my lyre came to be used for mourning,
and my flute for the voice of those who weep.

"Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great,
and it has become a dwelling place of demons
and a haunt of every unclean spirit
and a haunt of every unclean bird
and a haunt of every unclean and detested animal.
For all the nations have drunk
from the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality,
and the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality with her,
and the merchants of the earth have become rich
from the power of her sensuality."

"Come out from her, my people,
so that you will not participate in her sins,
and so that you will not receive her plagues,
because her sins have reached up to heaven,
and God has remembered her crimes.
Pay back to her as she herself also paid out,
and pay back double according to her deeds;
in the cup that she mixed, mix double for her.
As much as she glorified herself and lived in luxury,
give to her so much torment and mourning,
because in her heart she said,
‘I sit as a queen, and am not a widow,
and I will never see mourning!’
Because of this her plagues will come in one day—
death and mourning and famine—
and she will be burned up with fire,
because the Lord God who passes judgment on her is powerful!"

"Woe, woe, the great city,
    Babylon the powerful city,
because in one hour your judgment has come!"

"And the fruit your soul desires has departed from you,
and all the luxury and the splendor has perished from you,
    and they will never find them any more."

"Woe, woe, the great city,
    dressed in fine linen and purple cloth and scarlet cloth,
    and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls,
because in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste!"

"Woe, woe, the great city,
    in which all those who had ships on the sea
        became rich from her prosperity,
because in one hour she has been laid waste!"
Rejoice over her, heaven
    and the saints and the apostles and the prophets,
because God has pronounced your judgment on her!"

"In this way Babylon the great city will be thrown down with violence,
    and will never be found again!
And the sound of harpists and musicians and flute players and trumpeters
    will never be heard in you again!
And every craftsman of every trade
    will never be found in you again!
And the sound of a mill
    will never be heard in you again!
And the light of a lamp
    will never shine in you again!
And the sound of a bridegroom and bride
    will never be heard in you again!
For your merchants were the most important people of the earth,
    because with your sorcery they deceived all the nations.
And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints
    and all those who had been slaughtered on the earth.