"If someone should attempt a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can refrain from speaking?

Can food that is tasteless be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

Is there any falsehood on my lips? Can my mouth not discern evil things?

Can the papyrus plant grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds flourish without water?

While they are still beginning to flower and not ripe for cutting, they can wither away faster than any grass!

"Truly, I know that this is so. But how can a human be just before God?

If he snatches away, who can turn him back? Who dares to say to him, 'What are you doing?'

"How much less, then, can I answer him and choose my words to argue with him!

although you know that I am not guilty, and that there is no one who can deliver out of your hand?

"Can you discover the essence of God? Can you find out the perfection of the Almighty?

It is higher than the heavens -- what can you do? It is deeper than Sheol -- what can you know?

If he comes by and confines you and convenes a court, then who can prevent him?

Who will contend with me? If anyone can, I will be silent and die.

Who can make a clean thing come from an unclean? No one!

"How long until you make an end of words? You must consider, and then we can talk.

Can anyone teach God knowledge, since he judges those that are on high?

So how can you console me with your futile words? Nothing is left of your answers but deception!"

They were saying to God, 'Turn away from us,' and 'What can the Almighty do to us?'

But he is unchangeable, and who can change him? Whatever he has desired, he does.

And the eye of the adulterer watches for the twilight, thinking, 'No eye can see me,' and covers his face with a mask.

"If this is not so, who can prove me a liar and reduce my words to nothing?"

Can his armies be numbered? On whom does his light not rise?

How then can a human being be righteous before God? How can one born of a woman be pure?

Indeed, these are but the outer fringes of his ways! How faint is the whisper we hear of him! But who can understand the thunder of his power?"

"But wisdom -- where can it be found? Where is the place of understanding?

Fine gold cannot be given in exchange for it, nor can its price be weighed out in silver.

Neither gold nor crystal can be compared with it, nor can a vase of gold match its worth.

Destruction and Death say, 'With our ears we have heard a rumor about where it can be found.'

Reply to me, if you can; set your arguments in order before me and take your stand!

Do you really think that one who hates justice can govern? And will you declare guilty the supremely righteous One,

There is no darkness, and no deep darkness, where evildoers can hide themselves.

He strikes them for their wickedness, in a place where people can see,

But if God is quiet, who can condemn him? If he hides his face, then who can see him? Yet he is over the individual and the nation alike,

Who can understand the spreading of the clouds, the thunderings of his pavilion?

Can you tie the bands of the Pleiades, or release the cords of Orion?

Can you lead out the constellations in their seasons, or guide the Bear with its cubs?

Do you know the laws of the heavens, or can you set up their rule over the earth?

Can you raise your voice to the clouds so that a flood of water covers you?

Can you send out lightning bolts, and they go? Will they say to you, 'Here we are'?

Who by wisdom can count the clouds, and who can tip over the water jars of heaven,

Can you bind the wild ox to a furrow with its rope, will it till the valleys, following after you?

Can you count on it to bring in your grain, and gather the grain to your threshing floor?

Do you have an arm as powerful as God's, and can you thunder with a voice like his?

Then I myself will acknowledge to you that your own right hand can save you.

Can anyone catch it by its eyes, or pierce its nose with a snare?

"Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook, and tie down its tongue with a rope?

Can you put a cord through its nose, or pierce its jaw with a hook?

Can you play with it, like a bird, or tie it on a leash for your girls?

Can you fill its hide with harpoons or its head with fishing spears?

Is it not fierce when it is awakened? Who is he, then, who can stand before it?

Who can uncover its outer covering? Who can penetrate to the inside of its armor?

Who can open the doors of its mouth? Its teeth all around are fearsome.

each one is so close to the next that no air can come between them.

"I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted;