Old men have wisdom, and a long life gives knowledge.

He poureth out confusion upon princes, and comforteth them that have been oppressed.

Look, my eyes have seen all this;
my ears have heard and understood it.

According to your knowledge I have known -- also I. I am not fallen more than you.

But I would have talk with the Ruler of all, and my desire is to have an argument with God.

“But you smear me with lies [you defame my character most untruthfully];
You are all worthless physicians and have no remedy to offer.

Will you have respect for God's person in this cause, and put yourselves forward as his supporters?

Will it be good for you to be searched out by him, or have you the thought that he may be guided into error like a man?

He will certainly put you right, if you have respect for persons in secret.

"{Let me have silence}, and I myself will speak, and let come over me whatever [may].

Behold, he will slay me; I have no hope: Nevertheless I will maintain my ways before him.

I have this as my salvation: the godless person won't be appearing before him.

Pay attention to what I have to say and listen to my testimony with your own ears."

Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified.

Only grant these two things to me, God,
so that I will not have to hide from Your presence:

How many iniquities and sins have I? My transgression and my sin let me know.

Indeed, have you opened your eyes on one like this to bring me into a legal fight with you?

If his days [are] determined, the number of his months [is] with you; you have appointed his boundaries, and he cannot cross [them].

Let your eyes be turned away from him, and take your hand from him, so that he may have pleasure at the end of his day, like a servant working for payment.

Even if its roots have grown ancient in the earth, and its stump begins to rot in the ground,

Waters have gone away from a sea, And a river becometh waste and dry.

Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.

Stones have waters worn away, Their outpourings wash away the dust of earth, And the hope of man Thou hast destroyed.

But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.

“Should a wise man [such as you] utter such windy and vain knowledge [as we have just heard]
And fill himself with the east wind [of withering, parching, and violent accusations]?

Will he make arguments with words in which is no profit, and with sayings which have no value?

For your mouth is guided by your sin, and you have taken the tongue of the false for yourself.

Have you listened in God's confidential discussion? And do you limit wisdom to yourself?

What knowledge have you which we have not? is there anything in your mind which is not in ours?

"We have both the gray-haired and the aged with us, and they are far older than your father.

“Are the consolations of God [as we have interpreted them to you] too trivial for you,
[Or] were we too gentle toward you [in our first speech] to be effective?

Why have your emotions carried you away? And why do your eyes flash

That you should turn your spirit against God
And let such words [as you have spoken] go out of your mouth?

Lo, in His holy ones He putteth no credence, And the heavens have not been pure in His eyes.

I will shew thee, hear me; and that which I have seen I will declare;

Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it:

'All days of the wicked he is paining himself, And few years have been laid up for the terrible one.

And he inhabiteth cities cut off, houses not dwelt in, That have been ready to become heaps.

I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.

Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?

and encourage you with what I have to say; my words of comfort would lessen your pain.

Even if I speak, my suffering is not relieved,
and if I hold back, what have I lost?

“But now God has exhausted me.
You [O Lord] have destroyed all my family and my household.

“You have taken a firm hold on me and have shriveled me up,
It has become a witness [against me];
And my leanness [and infirmity] rises up [as evidence] against me,
It testifies to my face [about my guilt].

They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me.

At ease I have been, and he breaketh me, And he hath laid hold on my neck, And he breaketh me in pieces, And he raiseth me to him for a mark.

His archers surround me; he slashes open my kidneys, and he does not have compassion; he pours out my gall on the ground.

I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.

Though my hands have done no violent acts, and my prayer is clean.

O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.

Even now, behold! I have a witness in heaven, my Advocate is on high.

Indeed, [after] {a few years} have come, then I will go [the] way [from which] I will not return.

My spirit is broken, my days have faded out, the grave awaits me.

“But You [Lord] have closed their hearts to understanding,
Therefore You will not exalt them [by giving a verdict against me].

He has made me an object of scorn to the people;
I have become a man people spit at.

My eyes have grown dim from grief,
and my whole body has become but a shadow.

My days have passed by, My devices have been broken off, The possessions of my heart!

They have transformed night into day "The light,' they say, "is about to become dark.'

If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.

I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.

Where now is my hope?
And who regards or considers or is even concerned about my hope?

All that I have, shall go down into the pit, and lie with me in the dust."

“How long will you hunt for words and continue these speeches?
Do some clear thinking and show understanding and then we can talk.

Wherefore have we been reckoned as cattle? We have been defiled in your eyes!

Round about terrified him have terrors, And they have scattered him -- at his feet.

His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.

He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings.

At this day westerns have been astonished And easterns have taken fright.

These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.

And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.

His troops have come together and cast up their way against me, and have encamped round about my tent.

My brethren from me He hath put far off, And mine acquaintances surely Have been estranged from me.

My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.

Sojourners of my house and my maids, For a stranger reckon me: An alien I have been in their eyes.

To my servant I have called, And he doth not answer, With my mouth I make supplication to him.

Also sucklings have despised me, I rise, and they speak against me.

Abominate me do all the men of my counsel, And those I have loved, Have been turned against me.

“My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh,
And I have escaped [death] by the skin of my teeth.

Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.

That -- I have known my Redeemer, The Living and the Last, For the dust he doth rise.

Whom I -- I see on my side, And mine eyes have beheld, and not a stranger, Consumed have been my reins in my bosom.

I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.

Have you knowledge of this from early times, when man was placed on the earth,

Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?

His bones have been full of his youth, And with him on the dust it lieth down.

But he shall labour, and yet have nothing to eat. Great travail shall he make for riches, but he shall not enjoy them.

"For though the wicked have never so much to fill his belly, yet God shall send his wrath upon him, and cause his indignation to rain over him:

If he have fled from the iron weapon, the bow of brass shall strike him through.

This is the portion that the wicked shall have of God, and the heritage that he may look for of the LORD."

Suffer me that I may speak; and after that I have spoken, mock on.

Yea, if I have remembered, then I have been troubled. And my flesh hath taken fright.

Wherefore do the wicked live? They have become old, Yea, they have been mighty in wealth.

They send out their young ones like a flock, and their children have pleasure in the dance,

They bear with them tabrets and harps, and have instruments of music at their pleasure.

And they say to God, 'Turn aside from us, And the knowledge of Thy ways We have not desired.

What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?

Lo, there is utterly no goodness in them, therefore will not I have to do with the counsel of the ungodly.

"How often do the wicked have their lights put out? Does calamity ever fall on them? Will God in his anger ever apportion their destruction?

You say, God keeps punishment stored up for his children. Let him send it on the man himself, so that he may have the punishment of it!

For what pleasure should he have in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?