know then that God has wronged me and encircled me with his net.

“If I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I receive no answer; I cry for help, but there is no justice.

I summon my servant, but he does not respond, even though I implore him with my own mouth.

My breath is repulsive to my wife; I am loathsome to my brothers.

If you say, ‘How we will pursue him, since the root of the trouble is found in him!’

His bones were full of his youthful vigor, but that vigor will lie down with him in the dust.

his food is turned sour in his stomach; it becomes the venom of serpents within him.

In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress overtakes him. the full force of misery will come upon him.

For what is his interest in his home after his death, when the number of his months has been broken off?

“Reconcile yourself with God, and be at peace with him; in this way your prosperity will be good.

Would he contend with me with great power? No, he would only pay attention to me.

But he knows the pathway that I take; if he tested me, I would come forth like gold.

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

If his children increase – it is for the sword! His offspring never have enough to eat.

Those who survive him are buried by the plague, and their widows do not mourn for them.

The east wind carries him away, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place.

Fine gold cannot be given in exchange for it, nor can its price be weighed out in silver.

for I rescued the poor who cried out for help, and the orphan who had no one to assist him;

“Then I thought, ‘I will die in my own home, my days as numerous as the grains of sand.

My roots reach the water, and the dew lies on my branches all night long.