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He lies down rich, but he shall not do so again. He opens his eyes, and he is not.

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Terrors overtake him like waters. A storm steals him away in the night.

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The east wind carries him away, and he departs. It sweeps him out of his place.

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For it hurls at him, and does not spare, as he flees away from his hand.

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Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place.

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“Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold which they refine.

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Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted out of the ore.

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Man sets an end to darkness, and searches out, to the furthest bound, the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.

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He breaks open a shaft away from where people live. They are forgotten by the foot. They hang far from men, they swing back and forth.

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As for the earth, out of it comes bread; Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.

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Sapphires come from its rocks. It has dust of gold.

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That path no bird of prey knows, neither has the falcon’s eye seen it.

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The proud animals have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion passed by there.

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He puts forth his hand on the flinty rock, and he overturns the mountains by the roots.

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He cuts out channels among the rocks. His eye sees every precious thing.

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He binds the streams that they don’t trickle. The thing that is hidden he brings forth to light.

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“But where shall wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding?

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Man doesn’t know its price; Neither is it found in the land of the living.

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The deep says, ‘It isn’t in me.’ The sea says, ‘It isn’t with me.’

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It can’t be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for its price.

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It can’t be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.

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Gold and glass can’t equal it, neither shall it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.

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No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal. Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies.

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The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, Neither shall it be valued with pure gold.

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Where then does wisdom come from? Where is the place of understanding?

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Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the birds of the sky.

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Destruction and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’

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“God understands its way, and he knows its place.

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For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole sky.

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He establishes the force of the wind. Yes, he measures out the waters by measure.

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When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder;

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then he saw it, and declared it. He established it, yes, and searched it out.

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To man he said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.’”

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Job again took up his parable, and said,

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“Oh that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me;

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when his lamp shone on my head, and by his light I walked through darkness,

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as I was in the ripeness of my days, when the friendship of God was in my tent,

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when the Almighty was yet with me, and my children were around me,

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when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out streams of oil for me,

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when I went forth to the city gate, when I prepared my seat in the street.

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The young men saw me and hid themselves. The aged rose up and stood.

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The princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.

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The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.

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For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it commended me:

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Because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had none to help him,

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the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

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I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was as a robe and a diadem.

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I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame.

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I was a father to the needy. The cause of him who I didn’t know, I searched out.

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I broke the jaws of the unrighteous, and plucked the prey out of his teeth.

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Then I said, ‘I shall die in my own house, I shall number my days as the sand.

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My root is spread out to the waters. The dew lies all night on my branch.

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My glory is fresh in me. My bow is renewed in my hand.’

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“Men listened to me, waited, and kept silence for my counsel.

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After my words they didn’t speak again. My speech fell on them.

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They waited for me as for the rain. Their mouths drank as with the spring rain.

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I smiled on them when they had no confidence. They didn’t reject the light of my face.

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I chose out their way, and sat as chief. I lived as a king in the army, as one who comforts the mourners.

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“But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.

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Of what use is the strength of their hands to me, men in whom ripe age has perished?

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They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.

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They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom are their food.

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They are driven out from the midst of men. They cry after them as after a thief;

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So that they dwell in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

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Among the bushes they bray; and under the nettles they are gathered together.

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They are children of fools, yes, children of base men. They were flogged out of the land.

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“Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.

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They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and don’t hesitate to spit in my face.

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For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me; and they have thrown off restraint before me.

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On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet, They cast up against me their ways of destruction.

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They mar my path, They set forward my calamity, without anyone’s help.

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As through a wide breach they come, in the midst of the ruin they roll themselves in.

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Terrors have turned on me. They chase my honor as the wind. My welfare has passed away as a cloud.

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“Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold on me.

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In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.

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By great force is my garment disfigured. It binds me about as the collar of my coat.

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He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes.

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I cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you gaze at me.

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You have turned to be cruel to me. With the might of your hand you persecute me.

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You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it. You dissolve me in the storm.

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For I know that you will bring me to death, To the house appointed for all living.

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“However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?

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Didn’t I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn’t my soul grieved for the needy?

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When I looked for good, then evil came; When I waited for light, there came darkness.

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My heart is troubled, and doesn’t rest. Days of affliction have come on me.

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I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.

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I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches.

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My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.

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Therefore my harp has turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.

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“I made a covenant with my eyes, how then should I look lustfully at a young woman?

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For what is the portion from God above, and the heritage from the Almighty on high?

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Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the workers of iniquity?

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Doesn’t he see my ways, and number all my steps?

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“If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hurried to deceit

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(let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know my integrity);

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if my step has turned out of the way, if my heart walked after my eyes, if any defilement has stuck to my hands,

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then let me sow, and let another eat. Yes, let the produce of my field be rooted out.

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“If my heart has been enticed to a woman, and I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door,

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then let my wife grind for another, and let others sleep with her.

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For that would be a heinous crime. Yes, it would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges: