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.

³ I have seen the fool taking root,
but suddenly I cursed his dwelling.

⁴His children are far from safety;
they are crushed in the gate,
and there is no one to deliver them.

⁵The hungry eat his harvest,
and he takes it even out of thorns,
and the thirsty pant after his wealth.

⁶For affliction does not come from the dust,
nor does trouble sprout from the ground,

⁷but man is born to trouble
as the sparks fly upward.

⁸“As for me, I would seek God,
and to God would I commit my cause,

⁹who 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 catches 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
and from the hand of the mighty.

¹⁶So the poor have hope,
and injustice shuts her mouth.

¹⁷“Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves;
therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty.

¹⁸For he wounds, but he binds up;
he shatters, but his hands heal.

¹⁹He will deliver you from six troubles;
in seven no evil shall touch you.

²⁰ In famine he will redeem you from death,
and in war from the power of the sword.

²¹You shall be hidden from the lash of the tongue,
and shall not fear destruction when it comes.

²²At destruction and famine you shall laugh,
and shall not fear the beasts of the earth.

²³For you shall be in league with the stones of the field,
and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you.

²⁴You shall know that your tent is at peace,
and you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing.

²⁵You shall know also that your offspring shall be many,
and your descendants as the grass of the earth.

²⁶You shall come to your grave in ripe old age,
like a sheaf gathered up in its season.

²⁷Behold, this we have searched out; it is true.
Hear, and know it for your good.”

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