just as I was in my most productive time, ¹  when God’s intimate friendship ²  was experienced in my tent,

“I thought, ¹  ‘In the middle of my life ²  I must walk through the gates of Sheol, I am deprived ³  of the rest of my years.’

you young men and young women, you elderly, along with you children!

Any one of you that I do not cut off from my altar, I will cause your ¹  eyes to fail ²  and will cause you grief. ³  All of those born to your family ⁴  will die in the prime of life. ⁵ 

Banish ¹  emotional stress ²  from your mind. ³  and put away pain ⁴  from your body; ⁵  for youth ⁶  and the prime of life ⁷  are fleeting. ⁸ 

with kings and counselors of the earth who built for themselves places now desolate, ¹ 

Before his time ¹  he will be paid in full, ²  and his branches will not flourish. ³ 

“One man dies in his full vigor, ¹  completely secure and prosperous,

men ¹  who were carried off ²  before their time, ³  when the flood ⁴  was poured out ⁵  on their foundations? ⁶ 

He has taken away my strength in the middle of life; ¹  he has cut short my days.

Even youths get tired and weary; even strong young men clumsily stumble. ¹ 

His bones ¹  were full of his youthful vigor, ²  but that vigor will lie down with him in the dust.

But if they refuse to listen, they pass over the river of death, ¹  and expire without knowledge.

It ranks first among the works of God, ¹  the One who made it has furnished it with a sword. ² 

As if with choice meat ¹  you satisfy my soul. ²  My mouth joyfully praises you, ³ 

We will swallow them alive ¹  like Sheol, ²  those full of vigor ³  like those going down to the Pit.

Better a meal of vegetables where there is love ¹  than a fattened ox where there is hatred. ² 

Then ¹  our sons will be like plants, that quickly grow to full size. ²  Our daughters will be like corner pillars, ³  carved like those in a palace. ⁴ 

The mother who had seven children ¹  will grow faint. All the breath will go out of her. ²  Her pride and joy will be taken from her in the prime of their life. It will seem as if the sun had set while it was still day. ³  She will suffer shame and humiliation. ⁴  I will cause any of them who are still left alive to be killed in war by the onslaughts of their enemies,” ⁵  says the Lord.

Some time later ¹  King Ahasuerus promoted ²  Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, exalting him and setting his position ³  above that of all the officials who were with him.