Job 5

¹ Call now! Will anyone respond to you? To which of the holy ones will you appeal?

² Nay, impatience kills the fool and indignation slays the simpleton.

³ I have seen a fool spreading his roots, but his household suddenly decayed.

⁴ His children shall be far from safety; they shall be crushed at the gate without a rescuer.

⁵ What they have reaped the hungry shall eat up; (or God shall take it away by blight;) and the thirsty shall swallow their substance.

⁶ For mischief comes not out of the earth, nor does trouble spring out of the ground;

⁷ But man himself begets mischief, as sparks fly upward.

⁸ In your place, I would appeal to God, and to God I would state my plea.

⁹

¹⁰ He gives rain upon the earth and sends water upon the fields;

¹¹ He sets up on high the lowly, and those who mourn he exalts to safety.

¹² He frustrates the plans of the cunning, so that their hands achieve no success;

¹³ He catches the wise in their own ruses, and the designs of the crafty are routed.

¹⁴ They meet with darkness in the daytime, and at noonday they grope as though it were night.

¹⁵ But the poor from the edge of the sword and from the hand of the mighty, he saves.

¹⁶ Thus the unfortunate have hope, and iniquity closes her mouth.

¹⁷ Happy is the man whom God reproves! The Almighty's chastening do not reject.

¹⁸ For he wounds, but he binds up; he smites, but his hands give healing.

¹⁹ Out of six troubles he will deliver you, and at the seventh no evil shall touch you.

²⁰ In famine he will deliver you from death, and in war from the threat of the sword;

²¹ From the scourge of the tongue you shall be hidden, and shall not fear approaching ruin.

²² At destruction and want you shall laugh; the beasts of the earth you need not dread.

²³ You shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the wild beasts shall be at peace with you.

²⁴ And you shall know that your tent is secure; taking stock of your household, you shall miss nothing.

²⁵ You shall know that your descendants are many, and your offspring as the grass of the earth.

²⁶ You shall approach the grave in full vigor, as a shock of grain comes in at its season.

²⁷ Lo, this we have searched out; so it is! This we have heard, and you should know.