They were saying to God, ‘Turn away from us,’ and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’

But it was he who filled their houses with good things – yet the counsel of the wicked was far from me.

That is why I am terrified in his presence; when I consider, I am afraid because of him.

To whom did you utter these words? And whose spirit has come forth from your mouth?

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

They detest me and maintain their distance; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.

My skin has turned dark on me; my body is hot with fever.

If I ate my morsel of bread myself, and did not share any of it with orphans –

He spares a person’s life from corruption, his very life from crossing over the river.

to turn back his life from the place of corruption, that he may be enlightened with the light of life.

Gaze at the heavens and see; consider the clouds, which are higher than you!

“I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted;

I loathe it; I do not want to live forever; leave me alone, for my days are a vapor!

Will you never look away from me, will you not let me alone long enough to swallow my spittle?

If someone wishes to contend with him, he cannot answer him one time in a thousand.

Are not my days few? Cease, then, and leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort,

But the eyes of the wicked fail, and escape eludes them; their one hope is to breathe their last.”

He does not expect to escape from darkness; he is marked for the sword;

He will not escape the darkness; a flame will wither his shoots and he will depart by the breath of God’s mouth.

“But if I speak, my pain is not relieved, and if I refrain from speaking – how much of it goes away?