“Did I ever say, ‘Give me something,’
Or, ‘Pay a bribe for me from your wealth,’

“If I have sinned, what [harm] have I done to You,
O Watcher of mankind?
Why have You set me as a target for You,
So that I am a burden to myself?

‘Remember now, that You have made me as clay;
So will You turn me into dust again?

“Why do You hide Your face [as if offended]
And consider me Your enemy?

“Give me a pledge (guarantee, promise) with Yourself [acknowledge my innocence before my death];
Who is there that will be my guarantor and give security for me?

“But He has made me a byword and mockery among the people,
And I have become one in whose face people spit.

“He has also kindled His wrath [like a fire] against me
And He considers and counts me as one of His adversaries.

“Those who live [temporarily] in my house and my maids consider me a stranger;
I am a foreigner in their sight.

“Therefore my disquieting thoughts make me answer,
Because of the uneasiness that is within me.

“And if this is not so, who can prove me a liar
And make my speech worthless?”

“I hold fast my uprightness and my right standing with God and I will not let them go;
My heart does not reproach me for any of my days.

“They waited for me [and for my words] as for the rain,
And they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.

(But from my youth the orphan grew up with me as with a father,
And from my mother’s womb I have been the widow’s guide),

‘Behold, God finds pretexts against me;
He counts me as His enemy.