Silver hath beginnings of its veins, and gold hath a place wherein it is melted.

Iron is taken out of the earth, and stone melted with heat is turned into brass.

He hath set a time for darkness, and the end of all things he considereth, the stone also that is in the dark and the shadow of death.

The flood divideth from the people that are on their journey, those whom the food of the needy man hath forgotten, and who cannot be come at.

The land, out of which bread grew in its place, hath been overturned with fire.

The stones of it are the place of sapphires, and the clods of it are gold.

The bird hath not known the path, neither hath the eye of the vulture beheld it.

The children of the merchants have not trodden it, neither hath the lioness passed by it.

He hath stretched forth his hand to the flint, he hath overturned mountains from the roots.

In the rocks he hath cut out rivers, and his eye hath seen every precious thing.

The depths also of rivers he hath searched, and hidden things he hath brought forth to light.

But where is wisdom to be found, and where is the place of understanding?

Man knoweth not the price thereof, neither is it found in the land of them that live in delights.

The depth saith: It is not in me: and the sea saith: It is not with me.

The finest gold shall not purchase it, neither shall silver be weighed in exchange for it.

It shall not be compared with the dyed colours of India, or with the most precious stone sardonyx, or the sapphire.

Gold or crystal cannot equal it, neither shall any vessels of gold be changed for it.

High and eminent things shall not be mentioned in comparison of it: but wisdom is drawn out of secret places.

The topaz of Ethiopia shall not be equal to it, neither shall it be compared to the cleanest dyeing.

Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?

It is hid from the eyes of all living, and the fowls of the air know it not.

Destruction and death have said: With our ears we have heard the fame thereof.

God understandeth the way of it, and he knoweth the place thereof.

For he beholdeth the ends of the world: and looketh on all things that are under heaven.

Who made a weight for the winds, and weighed the waters by measure.

When he gave a law for the rain, and a way for the sounding storms.

Then he saw it, and declared, and prepared, and searched it.

And he said to man: Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom: and to depart from evil, is understanding.

Job also added, taking up his parable, and said:

Who will grant me, that I might be according to the months past, according to the days in which God kept me?

When his lamp shined over my head, and I walked by his light in darkness?

As I was in the days of my youth, when God was secretly in my tabernacle?

When the Almighty was with me: and my servants round about me?

When I washed my feet with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil?

When I went out to the gate of the city, and in the street they prepared me a chair?

The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the old men rose up and stood.

The princes ceased to speak, and laid the finger on their mouth.

The rulers held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to their throat.

The ear that heard me blessed me, and the eye that saw me gave witness to me:

Because I had delivered the poor man that cried out; and the fatherless, that had no helper.

The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me, and I comforted the heart of the widow.

I was clad with justice: and I clothed myself with my judgment, as with a robe and a diadem.

I was an eye to the blind, and a foot to the lame.

I was the father of the poor: and the cause which I knew not, I searched out most diligently.

I broke the jaws of the wicked man, and out of his teeth I took away the prey.

And I said: I shall die in my nest, and as a palm tree shall multiply my days.

My root is opened beside the waters, and dew shall continue in my harvest.

My glory shall always be renewed, and my bow in my hand shall be repaired.

They that heard me, waited for my sentence, and being attentive held their peace at my counsel.

To my words they durst add nothing, and my speech dropped upon them.

They waited for me as for rain, and they opened their mouth as for a latter shower.

If at any time I laughed on them, they believed not, and the light of my countenance fell not on earth.

If I had a mind to go to them, I sat first, and when I sat as a king, with his army standing about him, yet I was a comforter of them that mourned.

But now the younger in time scorn me, whose fathers I would not have set with the dogs of my flock:

The strength of whose hands was to me as nothing, and they were thought unworthy of life itself.

Barren with want and hunger, who gnawed in the wilderness, disfigured with calamity and misery.

And they ate grass, and barks of trees, and the root of junipers was their food.

Who snatched up these things out of the valleys, and when they had found any of them, they ran to them with a cry.

They dwelt in the desert places of torrents, and in caves of earth, or upon the gravel.

They pleased themselves among these kind of things, and counted it delightful to be under the briers.

The children of foolish and base men, and not appearing at all upon the earth.

Now I am turned into their song, and am become their byword.

They abhor me, and flee far from me, and are not afraid to spit in my face.

For he hath opened his quiver, and hath afflicted me, and hath put a bridle into my mouth.

At the right hand of my rising, my calamities forthwith arose: they have overthrown my feet, and have overwhelmed me with their paths as with waves.

They have destroyed my ways, they have lain in wait against me, and they have prevailed, and there was none to help.

They have rushed in upon me, as when a wall is broken, and a gate opened, and have rolled themselves down to my miseries.

I am brought to nothing: as a wind thou hast taken away my desire: and my prosperity hath passed away like a cloud.

And now my soul fadeth within myself, and the days of affliction possess me.

In the night my bone is pierced with sorrows: and they that feed upon me, do not sleep.

With the multitude of them my garment is consumed, and they have girded me about, as with the collar of my coat.

I am compared to dirt, and am likened to embers and ashes.

I cry to thee, and thou hearest me not: I stand up, and thou dost not regard me.

Thou art changed to be cruel toward me, and in the hardness of thy hand thou art against me.

Thou hast lifted me up, and set me as it were upon the wind, and thou hast mightily dashed me.

I know that thou wilt deliver me to death, where a house is appointed for every one that liveth.

But yet thou stretchest not forth thy hand to their consumption: and if they shall fall down thou wilt save.

I wept heretofore for him that was afflicted, and my soul had compassion on the poor.

I expected good things, and evils are come upon me: I waited for light, and darkness broke out.

My inner parts have boiled without any rest, the days of affliction have prevented me.

I went mourning without indignation; I rose up, and cried in the crowd.

I was the brother of dragons, and companion of ostriches.

My skin is become black upon me, and my bones are dried up with heat.

My harp is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of those that weep.

I made a covenant with my eyes, that I would not so much as think upon a virgin.

For what part should God from above have in me, and what inheritance the Almighty from on high?

Is not destruction to the wicked, and aversion to them that work iniquity?

Doth not he consider my ways, and number all my steps?

If I have walked in vanity, and my foot hath made haste to deceit:

Let him weigh me in a just balance, and let God know my simplicity.

If my step hath turned out of the way, and if my heart hath followed my eyes, and if a spot hath cleaved to my hands:

Then let me sow and let another reap: and let my offspring be rooted out.

If my heart hath been deceived upon a woman, and if I have laid wait at my friend’s door:

Let my wife be the harlot of another, and let other men lie with her.

For this is a heinous crime, and a most grievous iniquity.

It is a fire that devoureth even to destruction, and rooteth up all things that spring.

If I have despised to abide judgment with my manservant, or my maidservant, when they had any controversy against me:

For what shall I do when God shall rise to judge? and when he shall examine, what shall I answer him?

Did not he that made me in the womb make him also: and did not one and the same form me in the womb?

If I have denied to the poor what they desired, and have made the eyes of the widow wait:

If I have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof:

(For from my infancy mercy grew up with me: and it came out with me from my mother’s womb:)

If I have despised him that was perishing for want of clothing, and the poor man that had no covering:

If his sides have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep:

If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, even when I saw myself superior in the gate:

Let my shoulder fall from its joint, and let my arm with its bones be broken.

For I have always feared God as waves swelling over me, and his weight I was unable to bear.

If I have thought gold my strength, and have said to fine gold: My confidence:

If I have rejoiced over my great riches, and because my hand had gotten much.

If I beheld the sun when it shined and the moon going in brightness:

And my heart in secret hath rejoiced, and I have kissed my hand with, my mouth:

Which is a very great iniquity, and a denial against the most high God.

If I have been glad at the downfall of him that hated me, and have rejoiced that evil had found him.

For I have not given my mouth to sin, by wishing a curse to his soul.

If the men of my tabernacle have not said: Who will give us of his flesh that we may be filled?

The stranger did not stay without, my door was open to the traveller.

If as a man I have hid my sin, and have concealed my iniquity in my bosom.

If I have been afraid at a very great multitude, and the contempt of kinsmen hath terrified me: and have not rather held my peace, and not gone out of the door.

Who would grant me a hearing, that the Almighty may hear my desire: and that he himself that judgeth would write a book,

That I may carry it on my shoulder, and put it about me as a crown?

At every step of mine I would pronounce it, and offer it as to a prince.

If my land cry against me, and with it the furrows thereof mourn:

If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, and have afflicted the soul of the tillers thereof:

Let thistles grow up to me instead of wheat, and thorns instead of barley.