Job

2 “Till when will you keep up this talk

and shall the words of your mouth be a big wind?

3 Will Deity play tricks with justice

or Shaddai with right?

4* If your sons sinned against him

he let them bear the consequences of their crime;

5 If you will direct your quest toward Deity

and beseech Shaddai,

6* If you are pure and right-minded

he will rouse for you now

and revive your righteous standing,

7 And your past will have been little

and your future will be right ample.

8 For ask a past generation

and observe their fathers’ researches,

9** Because we are yesterday’s growth; we do not know;

for our days on earth are a shadow.

10 Will not they instruct you, tell you,

and bring out words from their hearts?

11 Will papyrus stalks make a jungle in anything but a morass?

will reeds thrive without water?

12 Still unripe, unplucked,

before any grass they dry out.

13* Such are the paths of all who forget Deity,

and the hope of an irreligious man comes to nothing,

14 One whose reliance is a gossamer

and the object of his confidence is a spider’s tent.

15 He leans on his house and does not stand,

takes hold of it and does not get on his feet.

16* He is lush before the sun

and his runners run out over his garden,

17** His roots are matted about a stone-heap,

he takes hold of a structure of rocks.

18 If He annihilates him from his place

it will disavow him, ‘I never saw you.’

19* That is the triumphant climax of his career,

and another sprouts up from the ground.

20* Deity does not repudiate a conscientious man

nor lend a hand to evil-doers.

21* He will yet fill your mouth with laughter

and your lips with hurrahs.

22 Those who hate you will be wrapped in shame,

and wrong-doers’ tent will be nowhere.”