² Should a wise man make answer with ^[a]vain knowledge,
And fill himself with the east wind?
³ Should he reason with unprofitable talk,
Or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?
⁴ Yea, thou doest away with fear,
And ^[b]hinderest ^[c]devotion before God.
⁵ For ^[d]thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth,
And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
⁶ Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I;
Yea, thine own lips testify against thee.

⁷ Art thou the first man that was born?
Or wast thou brought forth before the hills?
^8 [e]Hast thou heard the secret counsel of God?
And dost thou limit wisdom to thyself?
⁹ What knowest thou, that we know not?
What understandest thou, which is not in us?
¹⁰ With us are both the grayheaded and the very aged men,
Much elder than thy father.
¹¹ Are the consolations of God too small for thee,
^[f]Even the word that is gentle toward thee?
¹² Why doth thy heart carry thee away?
And why do thine eyes flash,
¹³ That against God thou turnest thy spirit,
And lettest words go out of thy mouth?
¹⁴ What is man, that he should be clean?
And he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
¹⁵ Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones;
Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight:
¹⁶ How much less ^[g]one that is abominable and corrupt,
A man that drinketh iniquity like water!

¹⁷ I will show thee, hear thou me;
And that which I have seen I will declare
¹⁸ (Which wise men have told
From their fathers, and have not hid it;
¹⁹ Unto whom alone the land was given,
And no stranger passed among them):
²⁰ The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days,
^[h]Even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
²¹ A sound of terrors is in his ears;
In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.
²² He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness,
And he is waited for of the sword.
²³ He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it?
He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
²⁴ Distress and anguish make him afraid;
They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
²⁵ Because he hath stretched out his hand against God,
And ^[i]behaveth himself proudly against the Almighty;
²⁶ He runneth upon him with a stiff neck,
^[j]With the thick bosses of his bucklers;
²⁷ Because he hath covered his face with his fatness,
And gathered fat upon his loins;
²⁸ And he hath dwelt in ^[k]desolate cities,
In houses which no man ^[l]inhabited,
Which were ready to become heaps;
²⁹ He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue,
Neither shall ^[m]their possessions be extended on the earth.
³⁰ He shall not depart out of darkness;
The flame shall dry up his branches,
And by the breath of ^[n]God’s mouth shall he go away.
³¹ Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself;
For vanity shall be his recompense.
³² It shall be ^[o]accomplished before his time,
And his branch shall not be green.
³³ He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine,
And shall cast off his flower as the olive-tree.
³⁴ For the company of the godless shall be barren,
And fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
³⁵ They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity,
And their heart prepareth deceit.