16
he may speak in their ears
and terrify them with warnings,
17
to turn man from wrongdoing
and keep him from pride,
18
to preserve his soul from the pit,
his life from perishing by the sword.
19
Or a man may be chastened on a bed of pain
with constant distress in his bones,
20
so that his very being finds food repulsive
and his soul loathes the choicest meal.
21
His flesh wastes away to nothing,
and his bones, once hidden, now stick out.
22
His soul draws near to the pit,
and his life to the messengers of death.
23
“Yet if there is an angel on his side
as a mediator, one out of a thousand,
to tell a man what is right for him,
24
to be gracious to him and say,
‘Spare him from going down to the pit;
I have found a ransom for him’—
25
then his flesh is renewed like a child’s;
it is restored as in the days of his youth.