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For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, And to the house appointed for all living.

Job 31

In the night season my bones are pierced in me, And the `pains' that gnaw me take no rest.

Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, And disaster to the workers of iniquity?

If my step hath turned out of the way, And my heart walked after mine eyes, And if any spot hath cleaved to my hands:

If I have walked with falsehood, And my foot hath hasted to deceit;

Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? Was not my soul grieved for the needy?

Terrors are turned upon me; They chase mine honor as the wind; And my welfare is passed away as a cloud.

For he hath loosed his cord, and afflicted me; And they have cast off the bridle before me.

As through a wide breach they come: In the midst of the ruin they roll themselves `upon me'.

Among the bushes they bray; Under the nettles they are gathered together.

And now I am become their song, Yea, I am a byword unto them.

They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, And spare not to spit in my face.

They are gaunt with want and famine; They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of wasteness and desolation.

Yea, the strength of their hands, whereto should it profit me? Men in whom ripe age is perished.

They are driven forth from the midst `of men'; They cry after them as after a thief;

`They are' children of fools, yea, children of base men; They were scourged out of the land.

Upon my right hand rise the rabble; They thrust aside my feet, And they cast up against me their ways of destruction.

They mar my path, They set forward my calamity, `Even' men that have no helper.

They pluck salt-wort by the bushes; And the roots of the broom are their food.

So that they dwell in frightful valleys, In holes of the earth and of the rocks.

For when the ear heard me', then it blessed me; And when the eye saw me', it gave witness unto me:

I chose out their way, and sat `as' chief, And dwelt as a king in the army, As one that comforteth the mourners.

And I brake the jaws of the unrighteous, And plucked the prey out of his teeth.

My root is spread out to the waters, And the dew lieth all night upon my branch;

Then I said, I shall die in my nest, And I shall multiply my days as the sand:

I was a father to the needy: And the cause of him that I knew not I searched out.

My glory is fresh in me, And my bow is renewed in my hand.

Because I delivered the poor that cried, The fatherless also, that had none to help him.

The voice of the nobles was hushed, And their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.