‘Can mankind be just before God?
Can a man be pure before his Maker?

Who makes the Bear, Orion and the Pleiades,
And the chambers of the south;

“He makes counselors walk barefoot
And makes fools of judges.

“He makes priests walk barefoot
And overthrows the secure ones.

“He makes the nations great, then destroys them;
He enlarges the nations, then leads them away.

“He deprives of intelligence the chiefs of the earth’s people
And makes them wander in a pathless waste.

“They grope in darkness with no light,
And He makes them stagger like a drunken man.

“How many are my iniquities and sins?
Make known to me my rebellion and my sin.

“For You write bitter things against me
And make me to inherit the iniquities of my youth.

“Who can make the clean out of the unclean?
No one!

“They make night into day, saying,
‘The light is near,’ in the presence of darkness.

“If I look for Sheol as my home,
I make my bed in the darkness;

“Therefore my disquieting thoughts make me respond,
Even because of my inward agitation.

“I listened to the reproof which insults me,
And the spirit of my understanding makes me answer.

“Is there any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous,
Or profit if you make your ways perfect?

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

“Did not He who made me in the womb make him,
And the same one fashion us in the womb?

“For I do not know how to flatter,
Else my Maker would soon take me away.

“For He pays a man according to his work,
And makes him find it according to his way.

“But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker,
Who gives songs in the night,

Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth
And makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’

“I will fetch my knowledge from afar,
And I will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.

“Do you know how God establishes them,
And makes the lightning of His cloud to shine?

To satisfy the waste and desolate land
And to make the seeds of grass to sprout?

“Do you make him leap like the locust?
His majestic snorting is terrible.

“Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up
And makes his nest on high?

“Pour out the overflowings of your anger,
And look on everyone who is proud, and make him low.

“He is the first of the ways of God;
Let his maker bring near his sword.

“Will he make many supplications to you,
Or will he speak to you soft words?

“Will he make a covenant with you?
Will you take him for a servant forever?

“The arrow cannot make him flee;
Slingstones are turned into stubble for him.

“He makes the depths boil like a pot;
He makes the sea like a jar of ointment.

“Behind him he makes a wake to shine;
One would think the deep to be gray-haired.