When they lifted up their eyes at a distance and did not recognize him, they raised their voices and wept. And each of them tore his robe and they threw dust over their heads toward the sky.

“Why did the knees receive me,
And why the breasts, that I should suck?

“But as for me, I would seek God,
And I would place my cause before God;

“Indeed, you have now become such,
You see a terror and are afraid.

“Why then do You not pardon my transgression
And take away my iniquity?
For now I will lie down in the dust;
And You will seek me, but I will not be.”

“If you would seek God
And implore the compassion of the Almighty,

That You should seek for my guilt
And search after my sin?

“But I have intelligence as well as you;
I am not inferior to you.
And who does not know such things as these?

That you should turn your spirit against God
And allow such words to go out of your mouth?

“I have heard many such things;
Sorry comforters are you all.

“O you who tear yourself in your anger—
For your sake is the earth to be abandoned,
Or the rock to be moved from its place?

“Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked,
And this is the place of him who does not know God.”

“For He performs what is appointed for me,
And many such decrees are with Him.

“Thus it is hidden from the eyes of all living
And concealed from the birds of the sky.

“His young ones also suck up blood;
And where the slain are, there is he.”