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

Yet who can keep from speaking?

3  Behold, you have instructed many,

and you have ^astrengthened the weak hands.

4  Your words have upheld him who was stumbling,

and you have ^amade firm the feeble knees.

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

it touches you, and you are dismayed.

6  ^bIs not your fear of God¹ your ^cconfidence,

and the integrity of your ways your hope?

12  “Now a word was brought to me stealthily;

my ear received ⁱthe whisper of it.

13  Amid ^jthoughts from ^kvisions of the night,

when ^kdeep sleep falls on men,

14  dread came upon me, and trembling,

which made all my bones shake.

15  A spirit glided past my face;

the hair of my flesh stood up.

16  It stood still,

but I could not discern its appearance.

^lA form was before my eyes;

there was silence, then I heard ^ma voice:

17  ⁿ‘Can mortal man be in the right before¹ God?

Can a man be pure before his Maker?

18  Even in his servants ^ohe puts no trust,

and his angels he charges with error;

19  how much more those who dwell in houses of ^pclay,

whose foundation is in ^qthe dust,

who are crushed like^{2 r}the moth.

20  Between ^smorning and evening they are beaten to pieces;

they perish forever ^twithout anyone regarding it.

21  Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them,

^udo they not die, and that without wisdom?’