Job 5

¹“Call now; is there anyone who will answer you?

To which of the holy ones will you turn?

²Surely vexation kills the fool,

and jealousy slays the simple.

³I have seen fools taking root,

but suddenly I cursed their dwelling.

⁴Their children are far from safety,

they are crushed in the gate,

and there is no one to deliver them.

⁵The hungry eat their harvest,

and they take it even out of the thorns;

and the thirsty pant after their wealth.

⁶For misery does not come from the earth,

nor does trouble sprout from the ground;

⁷but human beings are born to trouble

just as sparks fly upward.

⁸“As for me, I would seek God,

and to God I would commit my cause.

⁹He does great things and unsearchable,

marvelous things without number.

¹⁰He gives rain on the earth

and sends waters on the fields;

¹¹he sets on high those who are lowly,

and those who mourn are lifted to safety.

¹²He frustrates the devices of the crafty,

so that their hands achieve no success.

¹³He takes the wise in their own craftiness;

and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.

¹⁴They meet with darkness in the daytime,

and grope at noonday as in the night.

¹⁵But he saves the needy from the sword of their mouth,

from the hand of the mighty.

¹⁶So the poor have hope,

and injustice shuts its mouth.

¹⁷“How happy is the one whom God reproves;

therefore do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.

¹⁸For he wounds, but he binds up;

he strikes, but his hands heal.

¹⁹He will deliver you from six troubles;

in seven no harm shall touch you.

²⁰In famine he will redeem you from death,

and in war from the power of the sword.

²¹You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue,

and shall not fear destruction when it comes.

²²At destruction and famine you shall laugh,

and shall not fear the wild animals of the earth.

²³For you shall be in league with the stones of the field,

and the wild animals shall be at peace with you.

²⁴You shall know that your tent is safe,

you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing.

²⁵You shall know that your descendants will be many,

and your offspring like the grass of the earth.

²⁶You shall come to your grave in ripe old age,

as a shock of grain comes up to the threshing floor in its season.

²⁷See, we have searched this out; it is true.

Hear, and know it for yourself.”