However, put forth Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh; he will curse You to Your face.”

Then they sat down on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights with no one speaking a word to him, for they saw that his pain was very great.

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

“For He inflicts pain, and gives relief;
He wounds, and His hands also heal.

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

“But it is still my consolation,
And I rejoice in unsparing pain,
That I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

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

“The wicked man writhes in pain all his days,
And numbered are the years stored up for the ruthless.

“I could strengthen you with my mouth,
And the solace of my lips could lessen your pain.

“If I speak, my pain is not lessened,
And if I hold back, what has left me?

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

“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.

“Man is also chastened with pain on his bed,
And with unceasing complaint in his bones;

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