Page:JPS-1917-Universal.djvu/978

---

⁴Let us choose for us that which is right;

Let us know among ourselves what is good.

⁵For Job hath said: 'I am righteous,

And God hath taken away my right;

⁶Notwithstanding my right I am accounted a liar;

My wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.'

⁷What man is like Job,

Who drinketh up scorning like water?

⁸Who goeth in company with the workers of iniquity,

And walketh with wicked men.

⁹For he hath said: 'It profiteth a man nothing

That he should be in accord with God.'

 

¹⁰Therefore hearken unto me, ye men of understanding:

Far be it from God, that He should do wickedness;

And from the Almighty, that He should commit iniquity.

¹¹For the work of a man will He requite unto him,

And cause every man to find according to his ways.

¹²Yea, of a surety, God will not do wickedly,

Neither will the Almighty pervert justice.

¹³Who gave Him a charge over the earth?

Or who hath disposed the whole world?

¹⁴If He set His heart upon man,

If He gather unto Himself his spirit and his breath;

¹⁵All flesh shall perish together,

And man shall return unto dust.

 

¹⁶If now thou hast understanding, hear this;

Hearken to the voice of my words.

¹⁷Shall even one that hateth right govern?

And wilt thou condemn Him that is just and mighty—

¹⁸Is it fit to say to a king: 'Thou art base'?

Or to nobles: 'Ye are wicked'?—

¹⁹That respecteth not the persons of princes,

Nor regardeth the rich more than the poor?

For they all are the work of His hands.

²⁰In a moment they die, even at midnight;

The people are shaken and pass away,

And the mighty are taken away without hand.

 

²¹For His eyes are upon the ways of a man,

And He seeth all his goings.

²²There is no darkness, nor shadow of death,

Where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.

²³For He doth not appoint a time unto any man,

When he should go before God in judgment.

²⁴He breaketh in pieces mighty men without inquisition,

And setteth others in their stead.

²⁵Therefore He taketh knowledge of their works;

And He overturneth them in the night, so that they are crushed.

²⁶He striketh them as wicked men

In the open sight of others;

²⁷Because they turned aside from following Him,

And would not have regard to any of His ways;

²⁸So that they cause the cry of the poor to come unto Him,

956