“Oh, ¹  if only my grief ²  could be weighed, ³  and my misfortune laid ⁴  on the scales too! ⁵ 

Calamity is ¹  hungry for him, ²  and misfortune is ready at his side. ³ 

Is it not misfortune for the unjust, and disaster for those who work iniquity?

If ¹  I have rejoiced over the misfortune of my enemy ²  or exulted ³  because calamity ⁴  found him –

Here is ¹  another misfortune ²  that I have seen on earth, ³  and it weighs ⁴  heavily on people: ⁵ 

I have seen another ¹  misfortune ²  on the earth: ³  It is an error a ruler makes. ⁴ 

Here is ¹  a misfortune ²  on earth ³  that I have seen: Wealth hoarded by its owner to his own misery.

“How often ¹  is the lamp of the wicked extinguished? How often does their ²  misfortune come upon them? How often does God apportion pain ³  to them ⁴  in his anger?

that the evil man is spared from the day of his misfortune, that he is delivered ¹  from the day of God’s wrath?

This is another misfortune: ¹  Just as he came, so will he go. What did he gain from toiling for the wind?

Pure and undefiled religion before ¹  God the Father ²  is this: to care for orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Isn’t this the way your ancestors ¹  acted, causing our God to bring on them and on this city all this misfortune? And now you are causing even more wrath on Israel, profaning the Sabbath like this!”

You should not have entered the city ¹  of my people when they experienced distress. ²  You should not have joined ³  in gloating over their misfortune when they suffered distress. ⁴  You should not have looted ⁵  their wealth when they endured distress. ⁶ 

God gives a man riches, property, and wealth so that he lacks nothing that his heart ¹  desires, ²  yet God does not enable ³  him to enjoy ⁴  the fruit of his labor ⁵  – instead, someone else ⁶  enjoys ⁷  it! ⁸  This is fruitless and a grave misfortune. ⁹