Job 14

¹ thou schalt make me aferd bi dremys, and thou schalt schake me with orrour, ethir hidousnesse, bi siytis. ² Wherfor my soule chees hangyng, and my boonys cheesiden deth. 3 Y dispeiride, now Y schal no more lyue; Lord, spare thou me, for my daies ben nouyt. ⁴ What is a man, for thou magnifiest hym? ether what settist thou thin herte toward hym? 5 Thou visitist hym eerly, and sudeynli thou preuest hym. 6 Hou long sparist thou not me, nether suffrist me, that Y swolowe my spotele? 7 Y haue synned; A! thou kepere of men, what schal Y do to thee? Whi hast thou set me contrarie to thee, and Y am maad greuouse to my silf? 8 Whi doist thou not awei my sinne, and whi takist thou not awei my wickidnesse? Lo! now Y schal slepe in dust, and if thou sekist me eerli, Y schal not abide. 10 Sotheli Baldath Suytes answeride, and seide, 11 Hou longe schalt thou speke siche thingis? The spirit of the word of thi mouth is manyfold. 12 Whether God supplauntith, ethir disseyueth, doom, and whether Almyyti God distrieth that, that is iust? ¹³ Yhe, thouy thi sones synneden ayens hym, and he lefte hem in the hond of her wickidnesse; ¹⁴ netheles, if thou risist eerli to God, and bisechist Almyyti God, if thou goist clene and riytful, 15 anoon he schal wake fulli to thee, and schal make pesible the dwellyng place of thi ryytfulnesse; 16 in so miche that thi formere thingis weren litil, and that thi laste thingis be multiplied greetli. 17 For whi, axe thou the formere generacioun, and seke thou diligentli the mynde of fadris. For we ben men of yistirdai, and kunnen not; for oure daies ben as schadewe on the erthe. ¹⁹ And thei schulen teche thee, thei schulen speke to thee, and of her herte thei schulen bring forth spechis. ²⁰ Whether a rusche may lyue with out moysture? ethir a spier `may wexe with out watir? ²¹ Whanne it is yit in the flour, nethir is takun with hond, it wexeth drie bifor alle erbis. ²² So the weies of alle men, that foryeten God; and the hope of an ypocrite schal perische.