Is not my power to help myself nothing, and has not every resource been driven from me?

He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with gladness.

“Without a doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you.

Calamity is hungry for him, and misfortune is ready at his side.

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

The folds of its flesh are tightly joined; they are firm on it, immovable.

and the Sabeans swooped down and carried them all away, and they killed the servants with the sword! And I – only I alone – escaped to tell you!”

Is it your opinion that God should recompense it, because you reject this? But you must choose, and not I, so tell us what you know.

and suddenly a great wind swept across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they died! And I – only I alone – escaped to tell you!”

“Let the day on which I was born perish, and the night that said, ‘A man has been conceived!’

But now the same thing comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are terrified.

The hungry eat up his harvest, and take it even from behind the thorns, and the thirsty swallow up their fortune.

“Therefore, blessed is the man whom God corrects, so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.

In time of famine he will redeem you from death, and in time of war from the power of the sword.

Can food that is tasteless be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

As a cloud is dispersed and then disappears, so the one who goes down to the grave does not come up again.

If your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.

But man dies and is powerless; he expires – and where is he?

Terrifying sounds fill his ears; in a time of peace marauders attack him.

Upright men are appalled at this; the innocent man is troubled with the godless.