he who shakes the earth out of its place so that its pillars tremble;

who teaches us more than the wild animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’

You, whose garments are hot when the earth is still because of the south wind,

with kings and counselors of the earth who built for themselves places now desolate,

“Does not humanity have hard service on earth? Are not their days also like the days of a hired man?

before I depart, never to return, to the land of darkness and the deepest shadow,

If he holds back the waters, then they dry up; if he releases them, they destroy the land.

“O earth, do not cover my blood, nor let there be a secret place for my cry.

They turn the needy from the pathway, and the poor of the land hide themselves together.

The earth, from which food comes, is overturned below as though by fire;

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you possess understanding!

Have you considered the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know it all!

he gives rain on the earth, and sends water on the fields;

For we were born yesterday and do not have knowledge, since our days on earth are but a shadow.

If a land has been given into the hand of a wicked man, he covers the faces of its judges; if it is not he, then who is it?

to the land of utter darkness, like the deepest darkness, and the deepest shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”

as water wears away stones, and torrents wash away the soil, so you destroy man’s hope.

You who tear yourself to pieces in your anger, will the earth be abandoned for your sake? Or will a rock be moved from its place?

His memory perishes from the earth, he has no name in the land.

“Surely you know that it has been from old, ever since humankind was placed on the earth,