I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that you will not hold me innocent.

For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in trial.

Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me:

Then would I speak, and not fear him; but it is not so with me.

I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; show me why you contend with me.

You know that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of your hand.

Have you not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?

You have clothed me with skin and flesh, and have knit me together with bones and sinews.

If I sin, then you mark me, and you will not acquit me from my iniquity.

If I am wicked, woe unto me; and if I am righteous, yet can I not lift up my head. I am full of disgrace; therefore see my affliction;

I would have been as though I had not been; I would have been carried from the womb to the grave.

Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,

Before I go where I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;

Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should a man full of talk be justified?

For he knows vain men: he sees wickedness also; will he not then consider it?

If iniquity be in your hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in your tents.

For then shall you lift up your face without spot; yea, you shall be steadfast, and shall not fear:

But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as one dying.

But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you: yea, who knows not such things as these?

Who knows not among all these that the hand of the LORD has done this?

Does not the ear test words? and the mouth taste its food?

What you know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto you.

Shall not his excellence make you afraid? and his dread fall upon you?

He also shall be my salvation: for a hypocrite shall not come before him.

Only do not two things unto me: then will I not hide myself from you.

Withdraw your hand far from me: and let not your dread make me afraid.

He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down: he flees also as a shadow, and continues not.

For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender shoots thereof will not cease.

So man lies down, and rises not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.

For now you number my steps: do not watch over my sin.

His sons come to honor, and he knows it not; and they are brought low, but he perceives it not of them.

Your own mouth condemns you, and not I: yea, your own lips testify against you.

What know you, that we know not? what understand you, which is not in us?

Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.

Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it:

He believes not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for by the sword.

He shall not be rich, neither shall his wealth continue, neither shall he overspread the earth with it.

He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches, and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.

Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for futility shall be his reward.

It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be green.

Though I speak, my grief is not relieved: and though I forbear, how am I eased?

His archers surround me, he slashes my kidneys asunder, and does not spare; he pours out my gall upon the ground.

Not for any violence in my hands: also my prayer is pure.

O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry have no place.

When a few years have come, then I shall go the way where I shall not return.

Are there not mockers with me? and does not my eye continue in their provocation?

For you have hidden their heart from understanding: therefore shall you not exalt them.

They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.

Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the flame of his fire shall not shine.

For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walks upon a snare.

Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knows not God.

These ten times have you reproached me: you are not ashamed that you have wronged me.

Know now that God has overthrown me, and has compassed me with his net.

Behold, I cry out concerning wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no justice.

Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another; though my heart be consumed within me.

Know you not this of old, since man was placed upon the earth,

He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.

Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth:

He shall not see the rivers, the brooks flowing with honey and butter.

That which he labored for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: from the proceeds of business he shall not rejoice.

Because he has oppressed and has forsaken the poor; because he has violently taken away a house which he built not;

Surely he shall not feel quietness in his heart, he shall not save of that which he desired.

All darkness shall be laid up for his treasures: a fire not blown upon shall consume him; it shall go ill with him who is left in his tent.

As for me, is my complaint to man? and if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled?

Their bull breeds, and fails not; their cow calves, and casts not her calf.

Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of your ways.

Lo, their prosperity is not in their hand: the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

Have you not asked them that go by the way? and do you not know their evidences,

Is not your wickedness great? and your iniquities without end?

You have not given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.

Or darkness, that you can not see; and abundance of waters cover you.

Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!

Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he sees not; and he walks in the circle of heaven.

Surely our substance is not cut down, but the remnant of them the fire consumes.

Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him:

My foot has held fast to his steps, his way have I kept, and not turned aside.

Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither has he covered the darkness from my face.

Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days?

Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded cries out: yet God charges not folly to them.

They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not its ways, nor abide in its paths.

The murderer rising with the light kills the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief.

In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light.

He evil treats the barren that bears not: and does not good to the widow.

And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?

Is there any number to his armies? and upon whom does not his light arise?

Behold even to the moon, and it shines not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight.

He binds up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not torn under them.

He has drawn a circle on the waters at the boundary where the day and night come together.

My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.

God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove my integrity from me.

My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

I will teach you by the hand of God: that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal.

If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword: and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

Those that remain of him shall be buried in death: and his widows shall not weep.

The rich man shall lie down, but he shall not be gathered: he opens his eyes, and he is not.

Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest steals him away in the night.

For God shall cast upon him, and not spare: he would scarcely flee out of his hand.

There is a path which no fowl knows, and which the falcon's eye has not seen:

The lion's whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.