[1] “Behold, my eye has seen all, || My ear has heard, and it attends to it. [2] According to your knowledge I have known—also I. I am not more fallen than you. [3] Yet I speak for the Mighty One, || And I delight to argue for God. [4] And yet, you [are] forgers of falsehood, || Physicians of nothing—all of you, [5] O that you would keep perfectly silent, || And it would be to you for wisdom. [6] Please hear my argument, || And attend to the pleadings of my lips, [7] Do you speak perverseness for God? And do you speak deceit for Him? [8] Do you accept His face, if you strive for God? [9] Is [it] good that He searches you, || If, as one mocks at a man, you mock at Him? [10] He surely reproves you, if you accept faces in secret. [11] Does His excellence not terrify you? And His dread fall on you? [12] Your remembrances [are] allegories of ashes, || For high places of clay [are] your heights. [13] Keep silent from me, and I speak, || And pass over me what will. [14] Why do I take my flesh in my teeth? And my soul put in my hand? [15] Behold, He slays me—I do not wait! Only, I argue my ways to His face. [16] Also—He [is] to me for salvation, || For the profane do not come before Him. [17] Hear my word diligently, || And my declaration with your ears. [18] Now behold, I have set the cause in order, || I have known that I am righteous. [19] Who [is] he that strives with me? For now I keep silent and gasp. [20] Only two things, O God, do with me, || Then I am not hidden from Your face: [21] Put Your hand far off from me, || And do not let Your terror terrify me. [22] And You call, and I answer, || Or—I speak, and You answer me. [23] How many iniquities and sins do I have? Let me know my transgression and my sin. [24] Why do You hide Your face? And reckon me for an enemy to You? [25] Do You terrify a leaf driven away? And do You pursue the dry stubble? [26] For You write bitter things against me, || And cause me to possess iniquities of my youth, [27] And you put my feet in the stocks, || And observe all my paths—You set a print on the roots of my feet, [28] And he, as a rotten thing, wears away, || A moth has consumed him as a garment.”
