51 “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 forth from 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 devices 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 there shall no evil touch you. 20 In famine he will redeem you from death;
in war, from the power of the sword. 21 You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue,
neither shall you be afraid of destruction when it comes. 22 At destruction and famine you shall laugh,
neither shall you be afraid of the animals of the earth. 23 For you shall be in league with the stones of the field.
The animals of the field shall be at peace with you. 24 You shall know that your tent is in peace.
You shall visit your fold, and shall miss nothing. 25 You shall know also that your seed shall be great,
Your offspring as the grass of the earth. 26 You shall come to your grave in a full age,
like a shock of grain comes in its season. 27 Look this, we have searched it, so it is.
Hear it, and know it for your good.”

Job Bewails His Birth

31 After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth. 2 Job answered: 3 “Let the day perish in which I was born,
the night which said, ‘There is a boy conceived.’ 4 Let that day be darkness.
Don’t let God from above seek for it,
neither let the light shine on it. 5 Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own.
Let a cloud dwell on it.
Let all that makes black the day terrify it. 6 As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it.
Let it not rejoice among the days of the year.
Let it not come into the number of the months. 7 Behold, let that night be barren.
Let no joyful voice come therein. 8 Let them curse it who curse the day,
who are ready to rouse up leviathan. 9 Let the stars of its twilight be dark.
Let it look for light, but have none,
neither let it see the eyelids of the morning, 10 because it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb,
nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.

11 “Why didn’t I die from the womb?
Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me? 12 Why did the knees receive me?
Or why the breast, that I should suck? 13 For now should I have lain down and been quiet.
I should have slept, then I would have been at rest, 14 with kings and counselors of the earth,
who built up waste places for themselves; 15 or with princes who had gold,
who filled their houses with silver: 16 or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been,
as infants who never saw light. 17 There the wicked cease from troubling.
There the weary are at rest. 18 There the prisoners are at ease together.
They don’t hear the voice of the taskmaster. 19 The small and the great are there.
The servant is free from his master.

20 “Why is light given to him who is in misery,
life to the bitter in soul, 21 Who long for death, but it doesn’t come;
and dig for it more than for hidden treasures, 22 who rejoice exceedingly,
and are glad, when they can find the grave? 23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hid,
whom God has hedged in? 24 For my sighing comes before I eat.
My groanings are poured out like water. 25 For the thing which I fear comes on me,
That which I am afraid of comes to me. 26 I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest;
but trouble comes.”