My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle and they come to an end without hope.

Distress and anguish terrify him; they prevail against him like a king ready to launch an attack,

He tears me down on every side until I perish; he uproots my hope like one uproots a tree.

They drive away the orphan’s donkey; they take the widow’s ox as a pledge.

For it is a fire that devours even to Destruction, and it would uproot all my harvest.

They are exalted for a little while, and then they are gone, they are brought low like all others, and gathered in, and like a head of grain they are cut off.’

When I hear a reproof that dishonors me, then my understanding prompts me to answer.

Can you raise your voice to the clouds so that a flood of water covers you?

It stands still, but I cannot recognize its appearance; an image is before my eyes, and I hear a murmuring voice:

Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has hedged in?

“Surely, God does not reject a blameless man, nor does he grasp the hand of the evildoers.

If he tears down, it cannot be rebuilt; if he imprisons a person, there is no escape.

Do you fix your eye on such a one? And do you bring me before you for judgment?

Look away from him and let him desist, until he fulfills his time like a hired man.

“But turn, all of you, and come now! I will not find a wise man among you.

that the elation of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.

“Surely one does not stretch out his hand against a broken man when he cries for help in his distress.

I have not even permitted my mouth to sin by asking for his life through a curse –

Its underparts are the sharp points of potsherds, it leaves its mark in the mud like a threshing sledge.

Although you were a powerful man, owning land, an honored man living on it,