Job

 2 “How long will you keep uttering these things,+

When the sayings of your mouth are but a powerful wind?+

 3 Will God* himself pervert judgment,+

Or will the Almighty himself pervert righteousness?+

 4 If your own sons have sinned against him,

So that he lets them go into the hand of their revolt,

 5 If you yourself will look for God,+

And [if] of the Almighty you will implore favor,

 6 If you are pure and upright,+

By now he would awake for you*

And he would certainly restore your righteous abiding place.

 7 Also, your beginning may have proved to be a small thing,

But your own end afterward would grow very great.+

 8 Indeed, ask, please, of the former generation,+

And direct [your attention] to the things searched out by their fathers.+

 9 For we were only yesterday,+ and we know nothing,

Because our days on earth are a shadow.+

10 Will not they themselves instruct you, tell you,*

And from their heart will they not bring forth words?

11 Will a papyrus plant+ grow tall without a swampy place?

Will a reed grow big without water?

12 While it is yet in its bud, not plucked off,

Even ahead of all other grass it will dry up.+

13 Thus are the pathways* of all those forgetting God,*+

And the very hope of an apostate* will perish,+

14 Whose confidence is cut off,

And whose trust is a spider’s house.*+

15 He will lean upon his house, but it will not keep standing;

He will take hold of it, but it will not last.

16 He is full of sap before the sun,

And in his garden his own twig goes forth.+

17 In a stone heap his roots become interwoven,

A house of stones he beholds.

18 If one swallows him up from his place,+

It will also certainly deny him, [saying,] ‘I have not seen you.’+

19 Look! That is the dissolving of his way;+

And from the dust others spring up.

20 Look! God* himself will not reject anyone blameless,

Neither will he take hold of the hand of evildoers,

21 Until he fills your mouth with laughter,

And your lips with joyful shouting.

22 The very ones hating you will be clothed with shame,+

And the tent of wicked ones will not be.”