“How many are my iniquities and sins [that so much sorrow should come to me]?
Make me recognize and understand my transgression and my sin.

Though there is - for a tree - hope, - if it should be cut down, that, again, it will grow, and, the tender branch thereof, will not cease;

If its root, should become old in the earth, and, in the dust, its stock should die:

If a man die, shall he live again ? All the days of my warfare would I wait, Till my release should come.

Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.

Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?

Should he reason with unprofitable talk? or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?

Shalt thou be the firm man born? and hadst thou a beginning before the hills?

Shalt thou hear in the consultation of God? and wilt thou reserve wisdom to thyself?

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

What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

unto whom only the land was given, that no stranger should come among them.

Running and charging headlong against Him
With his ornamented and massive shield;

And he has lived in desolate [God-forsaken] cities,
In houses which no one should inhabit,
Which were destined to become heaps [of ruins];

Evil has made them with child, and they give birth to trouble; and the fruit of their body is shame for themselves.

Shall words of wind have an end? Or what provokes you that you should answer?

I could speak as ye do also. But would God, that your soul were in my soul's stead: then should I heap up words against you, and shake my head at you.

But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief.

"O earth, you should not cover my blood, and let there be no place for my cry for help.

For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.

Where then would be my hope? And, as for my blessedness, who should see it!

How long will ye make a perversion of words? Ye should understand, and, afterwards, we could speak.

Why should we be regarded as beasts, and considered stupid in your sight?

You who tear yourself in anger—
should the earth be abandoned on your account,
or a rock be removed from its place?

Wherefore should ye persecute me as GOD? and, with my flesh, should not he satisfied?

But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?

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

Their child is established with them in their sight, their offspring before their eyes.

What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?

For what pleasure should he have in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?

For the evil one will be spared for the day of destruction; they shalt be led away to the day of wraths

How then should ye comfort me with vanity, since, as for your replies, there lurketh, in them treachery?

Is it of any special benefit to the Almighty that you should be righteous, or is it any gain to him that you make your ways blameless?

Should such one then as useth violence, wrong and oppression, doing all things of partiality, and having respect of persons, dwell in the land?

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

Shouldest thou then see no darkness? Should not the water flood run over thee?

wilt thou therefore say, 'Tush, how should God know? Doth his dominion reach beyond the clouds?

If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles.

Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks.

Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou shalt have plenty of silver.

For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God.

Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows.

Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.

When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person.

He shall deliver the innocent, and thou shalt escape by the pureness of thy hands.

There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge.

The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast;
the nursing child of the poor is seized as collateral.

[He] feeds on [the] barren, [who] does not have a child, and does no good to [the] widow.

And how should man be just with God? Or how should he be clean that is born of a woman?

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

Though he should heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay?

For I rescued the poor man who cried out for help,
and the fatherless child who had no one to support him.

He that should have been lost, gave me a good word, and the widow's heart praised me.

"Therefore, I thought verily that I should have died in my nest: and that my days should have been as many as the sands of the sea.

Yea, the strength of their hands, whereto should it profit me? Men in whom ripe age is perished.

I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?

“For what is the portion I would have from God above,
And what heritage from the Almighty on high?

because something as lascivious as that is an iniquity that should be judged.

yea, a fire that utterly should consume, and root out all my substance.

What then should I do when God riseth up? and if he visited, what should I answer him?

If I kept my food for myself, and did not give some of it to the child with no father;

if I ever cast my vote against a fatherless child
when I saw that I had support in the city gate,

This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above.

For if I had feared any great multitude of people, or if I had been despised of the simple; Oh then should I have been afraid. Thus have I quietly spent my life, and not gone out at the door.

I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.

Lo! I waited for your words, I kept giving ear for your reasons, until ye should search out what to say;

Lest ye should say, We have found out wisdom: God thrusteth him down, not man.

Should I continue to wait now that they are silent,
now that they stand there and no longer answer?

If thou shalt be able to turn back to me, set in order before me, stand forth.

Look, dread of me should not terrify you, and my hand will not be heavy upon you.

"Behold, unto these unreasonable words of thine will I make answer. Should God be reproved of man?

“Why do you complain against Him?
That He does not answer [you with] all His doings.

For when God doth once command a thing, there should no man be curious to search whether it be right.

His flesh shall be fresher than a child's: he shall return to the days of his youth:

Should I lie against my right? my wound is incurable without transgression.

For he hath said, It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God.

Therefore hearken unto me, ye men of understanding: far be it from God, that he should do wickedness; and from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity.

“If God should determine to do so,
If He should gather to Himself [that is, withdraw from man] His [life-giving] spirit and His breath,

Should he that hateth right indeed govern? and wilt thou condemn the All-just?

For he will not lay upon man more than right; that he should enter into judgment with God.

so that godless human beings should not reign, nor those who ensnare [the] people.

Should it be according to thy mind? he will recompense it, whether thou refuse, or whether thou choose; and not I: therefore speak what thou knowest.

Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him, yet judgment is before him; therefore trust thou in him.

Thus hath he uncovered their ear to a warning, and said - that they should turn from iniquity.

If they would hearken, and serve, they should complete their days, in prosperity, and their years, in pleasantness;

But, if they would not hearken, by a weapon, should they pass away, and breathe their last, no one knowing.

Yea, the impious in heart, should store up anger, They should not cry for help, when he bound them.

Their soul should die in youth, and their life, among the unclean.

Even so would he have removed thee out of the strait into a broad place, where there is no straitness; and that which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness.

Nevertheless, thou hast condemned the judgment of the ungodly; yea, even such a judgment and sentence shalt thou suffer.

Hath God ordained then, that the glorious life of thee, and all such mighty men should not be put down?

Thou shalt not pant after the night, for taking up peoples in their place.

Watch thyself; thou shalt not turn to iniquity: for upon this thou didst choose rather than affliction.

Remember that you should extol his work, [of] which people have sung.

Shalt thou know in God's setting upon them, and he caused the light of his cloud to shine?

Shalt thou know upon the poisings of the cloud, the wonders of the complete of knowledges?

That thy garments should be hot when he quieteth the earth from the south?

"Teach us what we should say to him; we cannot draw up our case because of [the] presence of darkness.

Shall it be told him that I would speak? Or should a man wish that he were swallowed up?

Seeing then that everybody feareth him, why should not all wise men also stand in fear of him?"