2 Wait for me a little, and I will teach thee; for I yet speak on God’s behalf.
3 I will take my knowledge from afar and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
4 For truly my words are not lies; for I share perfect knowledge with thee.
5 ¶ Behold, God is mighty and does not despise; he is mighty in virtue of heart.
6 He shall not give life to the wicked; but to the poor he shall give their right.
7 He shall not withdraw his eyes from the righteous; but with kings he shall place them on the throne for ever, and they shall be exalted.
8 And if they were bound in fetters and captive in cords of affliction,
9 then he shall show them their work and that their rebellions prevailed.
10 He opens their ear to instruction and commands that they turn from iniquity.
11 If they hearken and serve him, they shall spend their days in goodness and their years in delight.
12 But if they do not hearken, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge.
13 But the hypocrites in heart shall irritate him more; they shall not cry out when he binds them.
14 Their soul shall die in youth, and their life is among the male pagan cult prostitutes.
15 ¶ He shall deliver the poor from his poverty, and in affliction shall open their ears.
16 Likewise, he would have removed thee out of the mouth of anguish into a broad place where there is no distress and should have set thy table full of fatness.
17 But thou hast fulfilled the judgment of the wicked, against the judgment and the justice that sustain everything.
18 Therefore it is to be feared that he take thee away with a stroke, which cannot be avoided even with a great ransom.
19 Will he esteem thy riches? No, not gold, nor all the forces of strength.
20 Do not desire the night, when he cuts people off in their place.
21 Take heed, do not regard iniquity, to choose it rather than poverty.
22 Behold, God is exalted by his power; what teacher is like him?
23 Who has prescribed his way unto him? Or who shall say unto him, Thou hast wrought iniquity?
24 ¶ Remember to magnify his work, which men behold.
25 Every man may see it; man may behold it afar off.
26 Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.
27 For he detains the drops of water; when the rain pours down rain out of its vapour,
28 which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly.
29 Shall you understand the spreadings of the clouds or the noise of his tent?
30 Behold, he spreads his light upon it and covers the roots of the sea.
31 For by them he judges the peoples; he gives food to the multitude.
32 With the clouds he covers the light and commands them to come against the light.
33 The one gives news of the other; the one acquires wrath against the one that comes.