Study Desk

"He sinks a shaft away from inhabited areas, Forgotten by the foot; They hang and swing, away from people.

"Abaddon and Death say, 'With our ears we have heard a report of it.'

When He made a limit for the rain, And a course for the thunderbolt,

"I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; My justice was like a robe and a headband.

"I was a father to the poor, And I investigated the case which I did not know.

"I chose a way for them and sat as chief, And lived as a king among the troops, As one who comforted the mourners.

"They are driven from the community; They shout against them as against a thief,

"Worthless fellows, even those without a name, They were cast out from the land.

"And now I have become their taunt, And I have become a byword to them.

"As through a wide gap they come, Amid the storm they roll on.

"Sudden terrors are turned upon me; They chase away my dignity like the wind, And my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.

"By a great force my garment is distorted; It ties me up like the collar of my coat.

"You lift me up to the wind and make me ride it; And You dissolve me in a storm.

"Yet does one in a heap of ruins not reach out with his hand, Or in his disaster does he not cry out for help?

"I have become a brother to jackals, And a companion of ostriches.

"I have made a covenant with my eyes; How then could I look at a virgin?

"If my heart has been enticed by a woman, Or I have lurked at my neighbor's doorway,

"For that would be a lustful crime; Moreover, it would be wrongdoing punishable by judges.

"If I have rejected the claim of my male or female slaves When they filed a complaint against me,

(But from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, And from my infancy I guided her),