Study Desk

"Now put down a pledge for me with Yourself. Who is he who will shake hands with me?

For You have hidden their heart from understanding; Therefore You will not exalt them.

"But please, come back again, all of you, [fn] For I shall not find one wise man among you.

If I wait for the grave as my house, If I make my bed in the darkness,

Where then is my hope? As for my hope, who can see it?

You who tear yourself in anger, Shall the earth be forsaken for you? Or shall the rock be removed from its place?

For he is cast into a net by his own feet, And he walks into a snare.

A noose is hidden for him on the ground, And a trap for him in the road.

"Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends, For the hand of God has struck me!

For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth;

Whom I shall see for myself, And my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

Be afraid of the sword for yourselves; For wrath brings the punishment of the sword, That you may know there is a judgment."

That the triumphing of the wicked is short, And the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment?

He will restore that for which he labored, And will not swallow it down; From the proceeds of business He will get no enjoyment.

For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor, He has violently seized a house which he did not build.

Nothing is left for him to eat; Therefore his well-being will not last.

Total darkness is reserved for his treasures. An unfanned fire will consume him; It shall go ill with him who is left in his tent.

This is the portion from God for a wicked man, The heritage appointed to him by God."

"As for me, is my complaint against man? And if it were, why should I not be impatient?

Yet they say to God, "Depart from us, For we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways.