Job, 5

1. Make your appeal then. Will you find an answer? To which of the holy ones will you turn?

1. "Call now; is there any one who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?

2. Resentment kills the senseless, and anger brings death to the fool.

2. Surely vexation kills the fool, and jealousy slays the simple.

3. I have seen the senseless taking root, when a curse fell suddenly on his house.

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

4. His children are deprived of prop and stay, ruined at the gate, and no one to defend them;

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

5. their harvest goes to feed the hungry, God snatches it from their mouths, and covetous people thirst for their possessions.

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

6. No, misery does not grow out of the soil, nor sorrow spring from the ground.

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

7. It is people who breed trouble for themselves as surely as eagles fly to the height.

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

8. If I were you, I should appeal to God and lay my case before him.

8. "As for me, I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause;

9. His works are great, past all reckoning, marvels beyond all counting.

9. who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number:

10. He sends down rain to the earth, pours down water on the fields.

10. he gives rain upon the earth and sends waters upon the fields;

11. If his will is to raise up the downcast, or exalt the afflicted to the heights of prosperity,

11. he sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety.

12. he frustrates the plans of the artful so that they cannot succeed in their intrigues.

12. He frustrates the devices of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success.

13. He traps the crafty in the snare of their own trickery, throws the plans of the cunning into disarray.

13. He takes the wise in their own craftiness; and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.

14. In daylight they come up against darkness, and grope their way as if noon were night.

14. They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope at noonday as in the night.

15. He rescues the bankrupt from their jaws, and the needy from the grasp of the mighty.

15. But he saves the fatherless from their mouth, the needy from the hand of the mighty.

16. Hope springs afresh for the weak, and wickedness must shut its mouth.

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

17. Blessed are those whom God corrects! Do not then scorn the lesson of Shaddai!

17. "Behold, happy is the man whom God reproves; therefore despise not the chastening of the Almighty.

18. For he who wounds is he who soothes the sore, and the hand that hurts is the hand that heals.

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

19. Six times he will deliver you from sorrow, and the seventh time, evil will not touch you.

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

20. In time of famine, he will save you from death, and in wartime from the stroke of the sword.

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

21. You will be safe from the lash of the tongue, unafraid at the approach of the despoiler.

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

22. You will laugh at drought and frost, and have no fear of the beasts of the earth.

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

23. You will have a pact with the stones of the field, and live in amity with wild beasts.

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

24. You will know that your tent is secure, and your sheepfold unharmed when you inspect it.

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

25. You will see your descendants multiply, your offspring grow like the grass in the fields.

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

26. At a ripe age you will go to the grave, like a wheatsheaf stacked in due season.

26. You shall come to your grave in ripe old age, as a shock of grain comes up to the threshing floor in its season.

27. All this we have observed and it is so! Heed it, you will be the wiser for it!

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