2“If one ventures a word with you, will you be offended?

But who can keep from speaking?*

3See, you have instructed many;

you have strengthened the weak hands.*

4Your words have supported those who were stumbling,

and you have made firm the feeble knees.*

5But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;

it touches you, and you are dismayed.*

6Is not your fear of God your confidence

and the integrity of your ways your hope?*

7“Think now, who that was innocent ever perished?

Or where were the upright cut off?*

8As I have seen, those who plow iniquity

and sow trouble reap the same.*

9By the breath of God they perish,

and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.*

10The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion,

and the teeth of the young lions are broken.*

11The strong lion perishes for lack of prey,

and the whelps of the lioness are scattered.*

12“Now a word came stealing to me;

my ear received the whisper of it.*

13Amid thoughts from visions of the night,

when deep sleep falls on mortals,

14dread came upon me and trembling,

which made all my bones shake.*

15A spirit glided past my face;

the hair of my flesh bristled.

16It stood still,

but I could not discern its appearance.

A form was before my eyes;

there was silence; then I heard a voice:

17‘Can mortals be righteous beforev God?

Can humans be pure beforew their Maker?*

18Even in his servants he puts no trust,

and his angels he charges with error;*

19how much more those who live in houses of clay,

whose foundation is in the dust,

who are crushed like a moth.*

20Between morning and evening they are destroyed;

they perish forever without any regarding it.*

21Their tent cord is plucked up within them,

and they die devoid of wisdom.’*