Job 5

¹  “Call now; is there any who will answer you?
    To which of the holy ones will you turn?
² For resentment kills the foolish man,
    and jealousy kills the simple.
³ I have seen the foolish taking root,
    but suddenly I cursed his habitation.
⁴ His children are far from safety.
    They are crushed in the gate.
    Neither is there any to deliver them,
⁵ whose harvest the hungry eats up,
    and take it even out of the thorns.
    The snare gapes for their substance.
⁶ For affliction doesn’t come out of the dust,
    neither does trouble spring out of the ground;
⁷ but man is born to trouble,
    as the sparks fly upward.

⁸ “But as for me, I would seek God.
    I would commit my cause to God,
⁹ who does great things that can’t be fathomed,
    marvelous things without number;
¹⁰ who gives rain on the earth,
    and sends waters on the fields;
¹¹ so that he sets up on high those who are low,
    those who mourn are exalted to safety.
¹² He frustrates the plans of the crafty,
    So that their hands can’t perform their enterprise.
¹³ He takes the wise in their own craftiness;
    the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong.
¹⁴ They meet with darkness in the day time,
    and grope at noonday as in the night.
¹⁵ But he saves from the sword of their mouth,
    even the needy from the hand of the mighty.
¹⁶ So the poor has hope,
    and injustice shuts her mouth.

¹⁷ “Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects.
    Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.
¹⁸ For he wounds and binds up.
    He injures and his hands make whole.
¹⁹ He will deliver you in six troubles;
    yes, in seven no evil will touch you.
²⁰ In famine he will redeem you from death;
    in war, from the power of the sword.
²¹ You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue,
    neither will you be afraid of destruction when it comes.
²² You will laugh at destruction and famine,
    neither will you be afraid of the animals of the earth.
²³ For you will be allied with the stones of the field.
    The animals of the field will be at peace with you.
²⁴ You will know that your tent is in peace.
    You will visit your fold, and will miss nothing.
²⁵ You will know also that your offspring ^[a] will be great,
    Your offspring as the grass of the earth.
²⁶ You will come to your grave in a full age,
    like a shock of grain comes in its season.
²⁷ Look at this. We have searched it. It is so.
    Hear it, and know it for your good.”