4:3 Look, 1 you have instructed 2 many;
you have strengthened 3 feeble hands. 4
4:4 Your words have supported 5 those
who stumbled, 6
and you have strengthened the knees
that gave way. 7
4:5 But now the same thing 8 comes to you,
and you are discouraged; 9
it strikes you,
and you are terrified. 10
4:6 Is not your piety 11 your confidence, 12
and your blameless ways your hope? 13
4:7 Call to mind now: 14
Who, 15 being innocent, ever perished? 16
And where were upright people 17 ever destroyed? 18
4:8 Even as I have seen, 19 those who plow 20 iniquity 21
and those who sow trouble reap the same. 22
4:9 By the breath 23 of God they perish, 24
and by the blast 25 of his anger they are consumed.
4:10 There is 26 the roaring of the lion 27
and the growling 28 of the young lion,
but the teeth of the young lions are broken. 29
4:11 The mighty lion 30 perishes 31 for lack of prey,
and the cubs of the lioness 32 are scattered.
4:12 “Now a word was secretly 33 brought 34 to me,
and my ear caught 35 a whisper 36 of it.
4:13 In the troubling thoughts 37 of the dreams 38 in the night
when a deep sleep 39 falls on men,
4:14 a trembling 40 gripped me – and a terror! –
and made all my bones shake. 41
4:15 Then a breath of air 42 passes 43 by my face;
it makes 44 the hair of my flesh stand up.
4:16 It stands still, 45
but I cannot recognize 46 its appearance;
an image is before my eyes,
and I hear a murmuring voice: 47
4:17 “Is 48 a mortal man 49 righteous 50 before 51 God?
Or a man pure 52 before his Creator? 53
4:18 If 54 God 55 puts no trust in 56 his servants 57
and attributes 58 folly 59 to his angels,
4:19 how much more to those who live in houses of clay, 60
whose foundation is in the dust,
who are crushed 61 like 62 a moth?
4:20 They are destroyed 63 between morning and evening; 64
they perish forever 65 without anyone regarding it. 66
4:21 Is not their excess wealth 67 taken away from them? 68
They die, 69 yet without attaining wisdom. 70