Job 5.4
New International Version

¹ “Call if you will, but who will answer you?
To which of the holy ones will you turn?

² Resentment kills a fool,
and envy slays the simple.

³ I myself have seen a fool taking root,
but suddenly his house was cursed.

⁴ His children are far from safety,
crushed in court without a defender.

⁵ The hungry consume his harvest,
taking it even from among thorns,
and the thirsty pant after his wealth.

⁶ For hardship does not spring from the soil,
nor does trouble sprout from the ground.

⁷ Yet man is born to trouble
as surely as sparks fly upward.

⁸ “But if I were you, I would appeal to God;
I would lay my cause before him.

⁹ He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed,
miracles that cannot be counted.

¹⁰ He provides rain for the earth;
he sends water on the countryside.

¹¹ The lowly he sets on high,
and those who mourn are lifted to safety.

¹² He thwarts the plans of the crafty,
so that their hands achieve no success.

¹³ He catches the wise in their craftiness,
and the schemes of the wily are swept away.

¹⁴ Darkness comes upon them in the daytime;
at noon they grope as in the night.

¹⁵ He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth;
he saves them from the clutches of the powerful.

¹⁶ So the poor have hope,
and injustice shuts its mouth.

¹⁷ “Blessed is the one whom God corrects;
so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.

¹⁸ For he wounds, but he also binds up;
he injures, but his hands also heal.

¹⁹ From six calamities he will rescue you;
in seven no harm will touch you.

²⁰ In famine he will deliver you from death,
and in battle from the stroke of the sword.

²¹ You will be protected from the lash of the tongue,
and need not fear when destruction comes.

²² You will laugh at destruction and famine,
and need not fear the wild animals.

²³ For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field,
and the wild animals will be at peace with you.

²⁴ You will know that your tent is secure;
you will take stock of your property and find nothing missing.

²⁵ You will know that your children will be many,
and your descendants like the grass of the earth.

²⁶ You will come to the grave in full vigor,
like sheaves gathered in season.

²⁷ “We have examined this, and it is true.
So hear it and apply it to yourself.”