18. He keeps one from the pit,a life from perishing by the sword.
19. Or a person may be disciplined by painwhile in bed, bones ever aching
20. until a person loathes food,an appetite rejects a delicacy;
21. the flesh wastes away, no longer visible;the bones, once hidden, protrude.
22. A life approaches the pit;its very being draws near the death dealers.
23. Surely there’s a messenger for this person,a mediator, one out of a thousandto declare one’s integrity to another