Job 5

1 “Call out, then, and see whether anyone answers you,

or whether you will catch sight of any of the holy messengers.

2 Anger kills the fool,

and jealousy puts to death the man who has gone astray.

3 I have watched fools putting down roots,

and all at once their way of life was eaten away.

4 Let their children be far from rescue;

let them be shoved about at the doors of lesser men,

with no one to pull them out.

5 What those men gathered, the righteous will eat;

they themselves will not be pulled out of their troubles;

let their strength be drained dry.

6 Hardship does not come up out of the ground,

and trouble does not sprout from the mountains;

7 but a man is born to hardship,

and the vulture’s young fly high.

8 But as for me, I will take my plea to the Lord

and call on the Lord, the Master of all —

9 who does great things no one can trace out,

glorious and astonishing things beyond counting;

10 who gives rain on the earth

and sends water over everything under heaven;

11 who lifts the low to a height

and raises up those who are lost;

12 who breaks up the plans of the shrewd,

so that their hands never carry through what is true;

13 who catches the wise in their own discernment

and throws the schemers’ plan into confusion.

14 By day darkness will meet them,

and at noon they will grope as if it were night.

15 Let them perish in war,

and let the powerless get clear of the sovereign’s hand.

16 Let the powerless have hope,

and let the mouth of the unrighteous be stopped.

17 Blessed is the man the Lord corrects;

do not turn away the warning of the Almighty.

18 He is the one who makes a man hurt and then sets him right again;

he strikes, and his own hands heal.

19 Six times he will take you out of hard straits,

and the seventh time no evil will touch you.

20 In famine he will rescue you from death,

and in war he will free you from the hand of iron.

21 He will hide you from the whip of the tongue,

and you will not be afraid of evils on their way.

22 You will laugh at the unrighteous and the lawless,

and you will not be afraid of wild animals,

23 for the wild animals will be at peace with you.

24 Then you will know that your house is at peace,

and the way of life in your tent will not go wrong.

25 You will know that your offspring are many,

and your children like the green growth of the field.

26 You will come to the grave like ripe grain reaped in its season,

or like a heap on the threshing floor gathered in at the right hour.

27 Look, this is what we have tracked down;

this is what we have heard.

Now find out for yourself whether you have done anything.”