Study Desk

I am as one that is a laughing-stock to his neighbor, I who called upon God, and he answered: The just, the perfect man is a laughing-stock.

With him is strength and wisdom; The deceived and the deceiver are his.

Shall not his majesty make you afraid, And his dread fall upon you?

Seeing his days are determined, The number of his months is with thee, And thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;

Look away from him, that he may rest, Till he shall accomplish, as a hireling, his day.

Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth; Thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.

His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; And they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.

But his flesh upon him hath pain, And his soul within him mourneth.

Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones; Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight:

The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, Even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

A sound of terrors is in his ears; In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

Because he hath stretched out his hand against God, And behaveth himself proudly against the Almighty;

He runneth upon him with a stiff neck, With the thick bosses of his bucklers;

Because he hath covered his face with his fatness, And gathered fat upon his loins;

He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, Neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.

He shall not depart out of darkness; The flame shall dry up his branches, And by the breath of God's mouth shall he go away.

Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself; For vanity shall be his recompense.

It shall be accomplished before his time, And his branch shall not be green.

He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, And shall cast off his flower as the olive-tree.