Call now! Will anyone answer you?
To whom among the holy beings will you turn?
Vexation kills the fool;
Passion slays the simpleton.
I myself saw a fool who had struck roots;
Impulsively, I cursed his home:
May his children be far from success;
May they be oppressed in the gate with none to deliver them;
May the hungry devour his harvest,
Carrying it off in baskets;
May the thirsty swallow their wealth.
Evil does not grow out of the soil,
Nor does mischief spring from the ground;
For man is born to [do] mischief,
Just as sparks fly upward.

But I would resort to God;
I would lay my case before God,
Who performs great deeds which cannot be fathomed,
Wondrous things without number;
Who gives rain to the earth,
And sends water over the fields;
Who raises the lowly up high,
So that the dejected are secure in victory;
Who thwarts the design of the crafty,
So that their hands cannot gain success;
Who traps the clever in their own wiles;
The plans of the crafty go awry.
By day they encounter darkness,
At noon they grope as in the night.
But He saves the needy from the sword of their mouth,
From the clutches of the strong.
So there is hope for the wretched;
The mouth of wrongdoing is stopped.

See how happy is the man whom God reproves;
Do not reject the discipline of the Almighty.
He injures, but He binds up;
He wounds, but His hands heal.
He will deliver you from six troubles;
In seven no harm will reach you:
In famine He will redeem you from death,
In war, from the sword.
You will be sheltered from the scourging tongue;
You will have no fear when violence comes.
You will laugh at violence and starvation,
And have no fear of wild beasts.
For you will have a pact with the rocks in the field,
And the beasts of the field will be your allies.
You will know that all is well in your tent;
When you visit your wife you will never fail.
You will see that your offspring are many,
Your descendants like the grass of the earth.
You will come to the grave in ripe old age,
As shocks of grain are taken away in their season.
See, we have inquired into this and it is so;
Hear it and accept it.

Job 5
(JPS)