If only I might have an answer to my prayer, and God would give me my desire!

So I would still have comfort, and I would have joy in the pains of death, for I have not been false to the words of the Holy One.

Have I strength to go on waiting, or have I any end to be looking forward to?

I have no help in myself, and wisdom is completely gone from me.

My friends have been false like a stream, like streams in the valleys which come to an end:

So have you now become to me; you see my sad condition and are in fear.

Let your minds be changed, and do not have an evil opinion of me; yes, be changed, for my righteousness is still in me.

So I have for my heritage months of pain to no purpose, and nights of weariness are given to me.

He will not come back to his house, and his place will have no more knowledge of him.

When I say, In my bed I will have comfort, there I will get rest from my disease;

I have no desire for life, I would not be living for ever! Keep away from me, for my days are as a breath.

What is man, that you have made him great, and that your attention is fixed on him,

How long will it be before your eyes are turned away from me, so that I may have a minute's breathing-space?

If I have done wrong, what have I done to you, O keeper of men? why have you made me a mark for your blows, so that I am a weariness to myself?

If your children have done evil against him, then their punishment is from his hand.

(For we are but of yesterday, and have no knowledge, because our days on earth are gone like a shade:)

If he is taken away from his place, then it will say, I have not seen you.

See, he goes past me and I see him not: he goes on before, but I have no knowledge of him.

If I had sent for him to be present, and he had come, I would have no faith that he would give ear to my voice.

Though I was in the right, he would say that I was in the wrong; I have done no evil; but he says that I am a sinner.

I have done no wrong; I give no thought to what becomes of me; I have no desire for life.

If death comes suddenly through disease, he makes sport of the fate of those who have done no wrong.

Then you will have me pushed into the dust, so that I will seem disgusting to my very clothing.

There is no one to give a decision between us, who might have control over us.

I will say to God, Do not put me down as a sinner; make clear to me what you have against me.

Have you eyes of flesh, or do you see as man sees?

You have been kind to me, and your grace has been with me, and your care has kept my spirit safe.

Why then did you make me come out of my mother's body? It would have been better for me to have taken my last breath, and for no eye to have seen me,

And for me to have been as if I had not been; to have been taken from my mother's body straight to my last resting-place.

Are not the days of my life small in number? Let your eyes be turned away from me, so that I may have a little pleasure,

If you put far away the evil of your hands, and let no wrongdoing have a place in your tent;

Sleeping with no fear of danger; and men will be desiring to have grace in your eyes;

No doubt you have knowledge, and wisdom will come to an end with you.

But I have a mind as well as you; I am equal to you: yes, who has not knowledge of such things as these?

Old men have wisdom, and a long life gives knowledge.

Truly, my eye has seen all this, word of it has come to my ear, and I have knowledge of it.

But I would have talk with the Ruler of all, and my desire is to have an argument with God.

Will you have respect for God's person in this cause, and put yourselves forward as his supporters?

Will it be good for you to be searched out by him, or have you the thought that he may be guided into error like a man?

He will certainly put you right, if you have respect for persons in secret.

Truly, he will put an end to me; I have no hope; but I will not give way in argument before him;

See now, I have put my cause in order, and I am certain that I will be seen to be right.

If his days are ordered, and you have knowledge of the number of his months, having given him a fixed limit past which he may not go;

Let your eyes be turned away from him, and take your hand from him, so that he may have pleasure at the end of his day, like a servant working for payment.

At the sound of your voice I would give an answer, and you would have a desire for the work of your hands.

Will he make arguments with words in which is no profit, and with sayings which have no value?

For your mouth is guided by your sin, and you have taken the tongue of the false for yourself.

Were you present at the secret meeting of God? and have you taken all wisdom for yourself?

What knowledge have you which we have not? is there anything in your mind which is not in ours?

Take note and give ear to my words; and I will say what I have seen:

(The things which wise men have got from their fathers, and have not kept secret from us;

And he has made his resting-place in the towns which have been pulled down, in houses where no man had a right to be, whose fate was to become masses of broken walls.

Such things have frequently come to my ears: you are comforters who only give trouble.

I was in comfort, but I have been broken up by his hands; he has taken me by the neck, shaking me to bits; he has put me up as a mark for his arrows.

I have made haircloth the clothing of my skin, and my horn is rolled in the dust.

Though my hands have done no violent acts, and my prayer is clean.

O earth, let not my blood be covered, and let my cry have no resting-place!

You have kept their hearts from wisdom: for this cause you will not give them honour.

He has made me a word of shame to the peoples; I have become a mark for their sport.

My eyes have become dark because of my pain, and all my body is wasted to a shade.

If I am waiting for the underworld as my house, if I have made my bed in the dark;

How long will it be before you have done talking? Get wisdom, and then we will say what is in our minds.

Ten times now you have made sport of me; it gives you no sense of shame to do me wrong.

And, truly, if I have been in error, the effect of my error is only on myself.

He has taken my brothers far away from me; they have seen my fate and have become strange to me.

My relations and my near friends have given me up, and those living in my house have put me out of their minds.

At my cry my servant gives me no answer, and I have to make a prayer to him.

Even young children have no respect for me; when I get up their backs are turned on me.

My bones are joined to my skin, and I have got away with my flesh in my teeth.

Have pity on me, have pity on me, O my friends! for the hand of God is on me.

I have to give ear to arguments which put me to shame, and your answers to me are wind without wisdom.

Have you knowledge of this from early times, when man was placed on the earth,

Like the waste from his body he comes to an end for ever: those who have seen him say, Where is he?

They send out their young ones like a flock, and their children have pleasure in the dance,

Though they said to God, Go away from us, for we have no desire for the knowledge of your ways.

You say, God keeps punishment stored up for his children. Let him send it on the man himself, so that he may have the punishment of it!

Have you not put the question to the travellers, and do you not take note of their experience?

For you have taken your brother's goods when he was not in your debt, and have taken away the clothing of those who have need of it.

You have sent widows away without hearing their cause, and you have taken away the support of the child who has no father.

For then you will have delight in the Ruler of all, and your face will be lifted up to God.

I would see what his answers would be, and have knowledge of what he would say to me.

For he has knowledge of the way I take; after I have been tested I will come out like gold.

My feet have gone in his steps; I have kept in his way, without turning to one side or to the other.

I have never gone against the orders of his lips; the words of his mouth have been stored up in my heart.

Why are times not stored up by the Ruler of all, and why do those who have knowledge of him not see his days?

They get mixed grain from the field, and they take away the late fruit from the vines of those who have wealth.

They take their rest at night without clothing, and have no cover in the cold.

Others go about without clothing, and though they have no food, they get in the grain from the fields.

Between the lines of olive-trees they make oil; though they have no drink, they are crushing out the grapes.

Then there are those who are haters of the light, who have no knowledge of its ways, and do not go in them.

In the dark he makes holes in the walls of houses: in the daytime they are shutting themselves up, they have no knowledge of the light.

How have you given help to him who has no power! how have you been the salvation of the arm which has no strength!

How have you given teaching to him who has no wisdom, and fully made clear true knowledge!

To whom have your words been said? and whose spirit came out from you?

Truly, you have all seen it yourselves; why then have you become completely foolish?

If his children are increased, it is for the sword; and his offspring have not enough bread.

He makes a deep mine far away from those living in the light of day; when they go about on the earth, they have no knowledge of those who are under them, who are hanging far from men, twisting from side to side on a cord.

The great beasts have not gone over it, and the cruel lion has not taken that way.

Destruction and Death say, We have only had word of it with our ears.

But now those who are younger than I make sport of me; those whose fathers I would not have put with the dogs of my flocks.