² If someone ventures to have a word with you, will you grow impatient?
But who can refrain from speaking up?
³ You yourself have instructed many,
and you have strengthened weak hands.
⁴ Your words have raised up people who were stumbling,
and you have given support to buckling knees.
⁵ But now that this has happened to you, you grow impatient.
This strikes you and you are disturbed.
⁶ Shouldn’t your piety give you confidence?
Don’t your blameless ways give you reason to hope?
⁷ Now remember this:
Who has ever perished if he was innocent?
Where were the upright ever erased?
⁸ This is what I have observed:
Those who plow evil and sow trouble will reap the same.
⁹ By the breath of God they perish.
By the blast from his nostrils they come to an end.

¹⁰ The lion roars, and the fierce lion growls,
but the teeth of the young lion are broken. ^[1]
11 The strong lion perishes from a lack of prey,
and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

¹² A word was delivered to me secretly.
My ears caught a whisper of it.
¹³ In the middle of anxious thoughts arising from visions in the night,
at the time when deep sleep falls upon people,
¹⁴ terror and trembling came over me
and made all my bones tremble.
¹⁵ A spirit ^[2] passed in front of my face.
The hair on my body stood on end.
¹⁶ A figure stood in front of me,
but I could not tell what it was.
A form stood before my eyes,
and I heard a quiet voice say,
¹⁷ “Can a person be righteous before God?
Can a man be pure before his Maker?” ^[3]
18 If God does not trust his own servants,
if he charges his messengers with error,
¹⁹ how much more those who dwell in clay houses,
    whose foundations are in the dust,
    who are crushed more quickly than a moth!
²⁰ From dawn to dusk they are smashed to pieces.
They perish forever, and no one even notices.
²¹ Won’t the ropes that hold up their tents be pulled up, ^[4]
so that they die without gaining wisdom?

Job 5

¹ Call out! Is there anyone there to answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?

² It’s true, the fool is killed by resentment,
and the gullible are put to death by jealousy.
³ I myself have seen a fool putting down roots,
but immediately I pronounced a curse on his home. ^[5]
4 His children are far from safety.
They are crushed at the city gate without a defender.
⁵ His harvest is eaten by the hungry,
    who snatch it away, even from among the thorns,
    and the thirsty ^[6] swallow his children’s wealth.

⁶ Disaster does not just spring up from the dust,
nor does trouble sprout from the soil.
⁷ No, mankind is born for ^[7] trouble as surely as flames fly upward.

⁸ But I want to appeal to God.
I want to present my case to him. ^[8]
9 He does great things that are beyond investigation,
and miracles that are too many to be counted.
¹⁰ He provides rain for the earth.
He waters the fields in the countryside.
¹¹ He raises the lowly to the heights,
and he lifts those who mourn to safety.
¹² He foils the plots of clever schemers,
    so that their hands achieve no success.

¹³ He traps the wise in their schemes,
and the plans of the devious come to a swift end.
¹⁴ By day they encounter darkness,
and at noon they grope around as if it were night.

¹⁵ He saves the poor from mouths that cut like a sword
and from the hand of the strong.
¹⁶ He does this so that the helpless will have hope,
and injustice will shut its mouth.

¹⁷ Consider this:
How blessed is the man whom God corrects!
Do not reject the discipline of the Almighty!
¹⁸ For though he may inflict wounds, he also bandages them.
Though he may strike, his hands also heal.
¹⁹ From six calamities he will rescue you.
In seven no harm will touch you.
²⁰ In famine he will redeem you from death,
and in battle he will redeem you from the power of the sword.
²¹ You will be hidden from the lash of the tongue,
and you will not be afraid of devastation when it comes.
²² You will laugh at devastation and hunger.
You will not be afraid of the wild animals of the countryside,
²³ because there will be a covenant between you and the stones in the field,
and the wild animals will be at peace with you.
²⁴ You will know that your tent is secure,
and when you inspect your property, you will find nothing missing.
²⁵ You will know that your offspring will be many,
and your descendants will be like grass from the earth.
²⁶ You will come to the grave at a ripe old age,
    like a stack of sheaves that is gathered in season.
²⁷ Consider this:
We have investigated this carefully, and it is true!
Pay close attention and apply it to yourself!