Job 4:12–5:7

¹²Now to me a word was secretly brought, and mine ear received a whisper thereof. ¹³In thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men: — ¹⁴Fear came on me, and trembling, and made all my bones to shake; ¹⁵And a spirit passed before my face—the hair of my flesh stood up— ¹⁶It stood still; I could not discern the appearance thereof: a form was before mine eyes; I heard a slight murmur and a voice: ¹⁷Shall mortal man be more just than †God? Shall a man be purer than his Maker? ¹⁸Lo, he trusteth not his servants, and his angels he chargeth with folly: ¹⁹How much more them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed as the moth! ²⁰From morning to evening are they smitten: without any heeding it, they perish for ever. ²¹Is not their tent-cord torn away in them? they die, and without wisdom.

Chapter 5

¹Call, I pray thee! Is there any that answereth thee? and to which of the holy ones wilt thou turn? ²For vexation killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the simple. ³I myself saw the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his habitation. ⁴His children are far from safety, and they are crushed in the gate, and there is no deliverer: ⁵Whose harvest the hungry eateth up, and taketh even out of the thorns; and the snare gapeth for his substance.

⁶For evil cometh not forth from the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground; ⁷For man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upwards.