He does not allow me to recover my breath, for he fills me with bitterness.

I am blameless. I do not know myself. I despise my life.

I dread all my sufferings, for I know that you do not hold me blameless.

I will say to God, 'Do not condemn me; tell me why you are contending with me.'

Is it good for you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands, while you smile on the schemes of the wicked?

"Do you have eyes of flesh, or do you see as a human being sees?

Remember that you have made me as with the clay; will you return me to dust?

If I am guilty, woe to me, and if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head; I am full of shame, and satiated with my affliction.

I should have been as though I had never existed; I should have been carried right from the womb to the grave!

before I depart, never to return, to the land of darkness and the deepest shadow,

to the land of utter darkness, like the deepest darkness, and the deepest shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness."

Will your idle talk reduce people to silence, and will no one rebuke you when you mock?

and reveal to you the secrets of wisdom -- for true wisdom has two sides -- so that you would know that God has forgiven some of your sins.

It is higher than the heavens -- what can you do? It is deeper than Sheol -- what can you know?

if iniquity is in your hand -- put it far away, and do not let evil reside in your tents.

You will lie down with no one to make you afraid, and many will seek your favor.

But the eyes of the wicked fail, and escape eludes them; their one hope is to breathe their last."

"Without a doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you.

I also have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these?

I am a laughingstock to my friends, I, who called on God and whom he answered -- a righteous and blameless man is a laughingstock!

For calamity, there is derision (according to the ideas of the fortunate) -- a fate for those whose feet slip!

Or speak to the earth and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea declare to you.

What you know, I know also; I am not inferior to you!

But I wish to speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue my case with God.

"Listen now to my argument, and be attentive to my lips' contentions.

"Refrain from talking with me so that I may speak; then let come to me what may.

Why do I put myself in peril, and take my life in my hands?

Even if he slays me, I will hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face!

Listen carefully to my words; let your ears be attentive to my explanation.

Who will contend with me? If anyone can, I will be silent and die.

Only in two things spare me, O God, and then I will not hide from your face:

Then call, and I will answer, or I will speak, and you respond to me.

Why do you hide your face and regard me as your enemy?

Do you wish to torment a windblown leaf and chase after dry chaff?

For you write down bitter things against me and cause me to inherit the sins of my youth.

Do you fix your eye on such a one? And do you bring me before you for judgment?

Although its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump begins to die in the soil,

Do you listen in on God's secret council? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?

What do you know that we don't know? What do you understand that we don't understand?

Are God's consolations too trivial for you; or a word spoken in gentleness to you?

Why has your heart carried you away, and why do your eyes flash,

when you turn your rage against God and allow such words to escape from your mouth?

"I will explain to you; listen to me, and what I have seen, I will declare,

to whom alone the land was given when no foreigner passed among them.

He does not expect to escape from darkness; he is marked for the sword;

he wanders about -- food for vultures; he knows that the day of darkness is at hand.

Distress and anguish terrify him; they prevail against him like a king ready to launch an attack,

he lived in ruined towns and in houses where no one lives, where they are ready to crumble into heaps.

Will there be an end to your windy words? Or what provokes you that you answer?

God abandons me to evil men, and throws me into the hands of wicked men.

"O earth, do not cover my blood, nor let there be a secret place for my cry.

My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God;

Because you have closed their minds to understanding, therefore you will not exalt them.

He has made me a byword to people, I am the one in whose face they spit.

But the righteous man holds to his way, and the one with clean hands grows stronger.

These men change night into day; they say, 'The light is near in the face of darkness.'

If I hope for the grave to be my home, if I spread out my bed in darkness,

If I cry to corruption, 'You are my father,' and to the worm, 'My Mother,' or 'My sister,'

Will it go down to the barred gates of death? Will we descend together into the dust?"

You who tear yourself to pieces in your anger, will the earth be abandoned for your sake? Or will a rock be moved from its place?

He is dragged from the security of his tent, and marched off to the king of terrors.

These ten times you have been reproaching me; you are not ashamed to attack me!

My breath is repulsive to my wife; I am loathsome to my brothers.

My bones stick to my skin and my flesh; I have escaped alive with only the skin of my teeth.

Why do you pursue me like God does? Will you never be satiated with my flesh?

When I hear a reproof that dishonors me, then my understanding prompts me to answer.

Even though his stature reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds,

he will perish forever, like his own excrement; those who used to see him will say, 'Where is he?'

Like a dream he flies away, never again to be found, and like a vision of the night he is put to flight.

"Nothing is left for him to devour; that is why his prosperity does not last.

Total darkness waits to receive his treasures; a fire which has not been kindled will consume him and devour what is left in his tent.

A flood will carry off his house, rushing waters on the day of God's wrath.

"Listen carefully to my words; let this be the consolation you offer me.

"Why do the wicked go on living, grow old, even increase in power?

Their bulls breed without fail; their cows calve and do not miscarry.

They allow their children to run like a flock; their little ones dance about.

They sing to the accompaniment of tambourine and harp, and make merry to the sound of the flute.

They live out their years in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace.

So they say to God, 'Turn away from us! We do not want to know your ways.

Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain if we were to pray to him?'

"How often is the lamp of the wicked extinguished? How often does their misfortune come upon them? How often does God apportion pain to them in his anger?

Have you never questioned those who travel the roads? Do you not recognize their accounts --

that the evil man is spared from the day of his misfortune, that he is delivered from the day of God's wrath?

No one denounces his conduct to his face; no one repays him for what he has done.

And when he is carried to the tombs, and watch is kept over the funeral mound,

The clods of the torrent valley are sweet to him; behind him everybody follows in procession, and before him goes a countless throng.

"Is it to God that a strong man is of benefit? Is it to him that even a wise man is profitable?

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?

Is it because of your piety that he rebukes you and goes to judgment with you?

Is not your wickedness great and is there no end to your iniquity?

You gave the weary no water to drink and from the hungry you withheld food.

Will you keep to the old path that evil men have walked --

They were saying to God, 'Turn away from us,' and 'What can the Almighty do to us?'

If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up; if you remove wicked behavior far from your tent,

You will pray to him and he will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows to him.

O that I knew where I might find him, that I could come to his place of residence!

I would know with what words he would answer me, and understand what he would say to me.

Would he contend with me with great power? No, he would only pay attention to me.

"If I go to the east, he is not there, and to the west, yet I do not perceive him.

In the north when he is at work, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I see no trace of him.