² “How long before you stop talking?
    Speak sense if you want us to answer!
³ Do you think we are mere animals?
    Do you think we are stupid?
⁴ You may tear out your hair in anger,
    but will that destroy the earth?
    Will it make the rocks tremble?

⁵ “Surely the light of the wicked will be snuffed out.
    The sparks of their fire will not glow.
⁶ The light in their tent will grow dark.
    The lamp hanging above them will be quenched.
⁷ The confident stride of the wicked will be shortened.
    Their own schemes will be their downfall.
⁸ The wicked walk into a net.
    They fall into a pit.
⁹ A trap grabs them by the heel.
    A snare holds them tight.
¹⁰ A noose lies hidden on the ground.
    A rope is stretched across their path.

¹¹ “Terrors surround the wicked
    and trouble them at every step.
¹² Hunger depletes their strength,
    and calamity waits for them to stumble.
¹³ Disease eats their skin;
    death devours their limbs.
¹⁴ They are torn from the security of their homes
    and are brought down to the king of terrors.
¹⁵ The homes of the wicked will burn down;
    burning sulfur rains on their houses.
¹⁶ Their roots will dry up,
    and their branches will wither.
¹⁷ All memory of their existence will fade from the earth;
    no one will remember their names.
¹⁸ They will be thrust from light into darkness,
    driven from the world.
¹⁹ They will have neither children nor grandchildren,
    nor any survivor in the place where they lived.
²⁰ People in the west are appalled at their fate;
    people in the east are horrified.
²¹ They will say, ‘This was the home of a wicked person,
    the place of one who rejected God.’”

² “I have heard all this before.
    What miserable comforters you are!
³ Won’t you ever stop blowing hot air?
    What makes you keep on talking?
⁴ I could say the same things if you were in my place.
    I could spout off criticism and shake my head at you.
⁵ But if it were me, I would encourage you.
    I would try to take away your grief.
⁶ Instead, I suffer if I defend myself,
    and I suffer no less if I refuse to speak.

⁷ “O God, you have ground me down
    and devastated my family.
⁸ As if to prove I have sinned, you’ve reduced me to skin and bones.
    My gaunt flesh testifies against me.
⁹ God hates me and angrily tears me apart.
    He snaps his teeth at me
    and pierces me with his eyes.
¹⁰ People jeer and laugh at me.
    They slap my cheek in contempt.
    A mob gathers against me.
¹¹ God has handed me over to sinners.
    He has tossed me into the hands of the wicked.

¹² “I was living quietly until he shattered me.
    He took me by the neck and broke me in pieces.
Then he set me up as his target,
¹³     and now his archers surround me.
His arrows pierce me without mercy.
    The ground is wet with my blood.^[a]
14 Again and again he smashes against me,
    charging at me like a warrior.
¹⁵ I wear burlap to show my grief.
    My pride lies in the dust.
¹⁶ My eyes are red with weeping;
    dark shadows circle my eyes.
¹⁷ Yet I have done no wrong,
    and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸ “O earth, do not conceal my blood.
    Let it cry out on my behalf.
¹⁹ Even now my witness is in heaven.
    My advocate is there on high.
²⁰ My friends scorn me,
    but I pour out my tears to God.
²¹ I need someone to mediate between God and me,
    as a person mediates between friends.
²² For soon I must go down that road
    from which I will never return.

1 “How frail is humanity!
    How short is life, how full of trouble!
² We blossom like a flower and then wither.
    Like a passing shadow, we quickly disappear.
³ Must you keep an eye on such a frail creature
    and demand an accounting from me?
⁴ Who can bring purity out of an impure person?
    No one!
⁵ You have decided the length of our lives.
    You know how many months we will live,
    and we are not given a minute longer.
⁶ So leave us alone and let us rest!
    We are like hired hands, so let us finish our work in peace.

⁷ “Even a tree has more hope!
    If it is cut down, it will sprout again
    and grow new branches.
⁸ Though its roots have grown old in the earth
    and its stump decays,
⁹ at the scent of water it will bud
    and sprout again like a new seedling.

¹⁰ “But when people die, their strength is gone.
    They breathe their last, and then where are they?
¹¹ As water evaporates from a lake
    and a river disappears in drought,
¹² people are laid to rest and do not rise again.
    Until the heavens are no more, they will not wake up
    nor be roused from their sleep.

¹³ “I wish you would hide me in the grave^[a]
    and forget me there until your anger has passed.
    But mark your calendar to think of me again!
¹⁴ Can the dead live again?
    If so, this would give me hope through all my years of struggle,
    and I would eagerly await the release of death.
¹⁵ You would call and I would answer,
    and you would yearn for me, your handiwork.
¹⁶ For then you would guard my steps,
    instead of watching for my sins.
¹⁷ My sins would be sealed in a pouch,
    and you would cover my guilt.

¹⁸ “But instead, as mountains fall and crumble
    and as rocks fall from a cliff,
¹⁹ as water wears away the stones
    and floods wash away the soil,
    so you destroy people’s hope.
²⁰ You always overpower them, and they pass from the scene.
    You disfigure them in death and send them away.
²¹ They never know if their children grow up in honor
    or sink to insignificance.
²² They suffer painfully;
    their life is full of trouble.”