“For now I would have lain down and been quiet;
I would have slept then, I would have been at rest,

“For then it would be heavier than the sand of the seas;
Therefore my words have been rash.

‘I should have been as though I had not been,
Carried from womb to tomb.’

“You have sent widows away empty,
And the strength of the orphans has been crushed.

“Others have been with those who rebel against the light;
They do not want to know its ways
Nor abide in its paths.

“If my heart has been enticed by a woman,
Or I have lurked at my neighbor’s doorway,

If his loins have not thanked me,
And if he has not been warmed with the fleece of my sheep,

That too would have been an iniquity calling for judgment,
For I would have denied God above.

“Have the men of my tent not said,
‘Who can find one who has not been satisfied with his meat’?

“Behold, I belong to God like you;
I too have been formed out of the clay.

“Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
Or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?