Study Desk

They are exalted for a moment, then they are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like all others; they are cut off like heads of grain.

For what hope has the godless when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?

Surely all of you have seen it for yourselves. Why then do you keep up this empty talk?

Though his sons are many, they are destined for the sword; and his offspring will never have enough food.

His survivors will be buried by the plague, and their widows will not weep for them.

Surely there is a mine for silver and a place where gold is refined.

Man puts an end to the darkness; he probes the farthest recesses for ore in deepest darkness.

Neither gold nor crystal can compare, nor jewels of fine gold be exchanged for it.

For He looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.

when He set a limit for the rain and a path for the thunderbolt,

"How I long for the months gone by, for the days when God watched over me,

when my steps were bathed in cream and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!

For those who heard me called me blessed, and those who saw me commended me,

The dying man blessed me, and I made the widow's heart sing for joy.

Men listened to me with expectation, waiting silently for my counsel.

They waited for me as for rain and drank in my words like spring showers.

The rabble arises at my right; they lay snares for my feet and build siege ramps against me.

I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer; when I stand up, You merely look at me.

Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.

Yet no one stretches out his hand to a ruined man when he cries for help in his distress.