“I was a father to the needy, And I investigated the case which I did not know.
“I chose a way for them and sat as chief, And dwelt as a king among the troops, As one who comforted the mourners.
“They are driven from the community; They shout against them as against a thief,
“Fools, even those without a name, They were scourged from the land.
“And now I have become their taunt, I have even become a byword to them.
“As through a wide breach they come, Amid the tempest they roll on.
“Terrors are turned against me; They pursue my honor as the wind, And my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.
“By a great force my garment is distorted; It binds me about as the collar of my coat.
“You lift me up to the wind and cause me to ride; And You dissolve me in a storm.
“Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand, Or in his disaster therefore cry out for help?
“I have become a brother to jackals And a companion of ostriches.
“I have made a covenant with my eyes; How then could I gaze at a virgin?
“If my heart has been enticed by a woman, Or I have lurked at my neighbor’s doorway,
“For that would be a lustful crime; Moreover, it would be an iniquity punishable by judges.
“If I have despised the claim of my male or female slaves When they filed a complaint against me,
(But from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, And from infancy I guided her),
“For calamity from God is a terror to me, And because of His majesty I can do nothing.
And my heart became secretly enticed, And my hand threw a kiss from my mouth,
“No, I have not allowed my mouth to sin By asking for his life in a curse.
Surely I would carry it on my shoulder, I would bind it to myself like a crown.
“I would declare to Him the number of my steps; Like a prince I would approach Him.
“But it is a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.
“In a dream, a vision of the night, When sound sleep falls on men, While they slumber in their beds,
“If there is an angel as mediator for him, One out of a thousand, To remind a man what is right for him,
Then let him be gracious to him, and say, ‘Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom’;
“For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing When he is pleased with God.’
“For He pays a man according to his work, And makes him find it according to his way.
Who says to a king, ‘Worthless one,’ To nobles, ‘Wicked ones’;
“In a moment they die, and at midnight People are shaken and pass away, And the mighty are taken away without a hand.
“For His eyes are upon the ways of a man, And He sees all his steps.
“For He does not need to consider a man further, That he should go before God in judgment.
“He strikes them like the wicked In a public place,
“Men of understanding will say to me, And a wise man who hears me,
“Your wickedness is for a man like yourself, And your righteousness is for a son of man.
“Wait for me a little, and I will show you That there is yet more to be said in God’s behalf.
“Then indeed, He enticed you from the mouth of distress, Instead of it, a broad place with no constraint; And that which was set on your table was full of fatness.
“Behold, God is exalted in His power; Who is a teacher like Him?
“After it, a voice roars; He thunders with His majestic voice, And He does not restrain the lightnings when His voice is heard.
“Can you, with Him, spread out the skies, Strong as a molten mirror?
“Shall it be told Him that I would speak? Or should a man say that he would be swallowed up?
“Now gird up your loins like a man, And I will ask you, and you instruct Me!
When I made a cloud its garment And thick darkness its swaddling band,
And I placed boundaries on it And set a bolt and doors,
“It is changed like clay under the seal; And they stand forth like a garment.
“Who has cleft a channel for the flood, Or a way for the thunderbolt,
To bring rain on a land without people, On a desert without a man in it,
“Has the rain a father? Or who has begotten the drops of dew?
“Can you lead forth a constellation in its season, And guide the Bear with her satellites?
When the dust hardens into a mass And the clods stick together?
To whom I gave the wilderness for a home And the salt land for his dwelling place?
New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995
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