When I say: My bed will comfort me,
and my couch will ease my complaint,

It is all the same. Therefore I say,
“He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.”

I will say to God:
“Do not declare me guilty!
Let me know why You prosecute me.

Your iniquity teaches you what to say,
and you choose the language of the crafty.

and say to corruption: You are my father,
and to the maggot: My mother or my sister,

If you say, “How will we pursue him,
since the root of the problem lies with him?”

Yet they say to God: “Leave us alone!
We don’t want to know Your ways.

For you say, “Where now is the nobleman’s house?”
and “Where are the tents the wicked lived in?”

Yet you say: “What does God know?
Can He judge through thick darkness?

When others are humiliated and you say, “Lift them up,”
God will save the humble.

I would learn how He would answer me;
and understand what He would say to me.

The ocean depths say, “It’s not in me,”
while the sea declares, “I don’t have it.”

Abaddon and Death say,
“We have heard news of it with our ears.”

Therefore I say, “Listen to me.
I too will declare what I know.”

and to be gracious to him and say,
“Spare him from going down to the Pit;
I have found a ransom,”

He will look at men and say,
“I have sinned and perverted what was right;
yet I did not get what I deserved.

But if you have something to say, answer me;
speak, for I would like to justify you.

If you have understanding, hear this;
listen to what I have to say.

who says to a king, “Worthless man!”
and to nobles, “Wicked men!”?

Suppose someone says to God,
“I have endured my punishment;
I will no longer act wickedly.

Reasonable men will say to me,
along with the wise men who hear me,

Do you think it is just when you say,
“I am righteous before God”?

For He says to the snow, “Fall to the earth,”
and the torrential rains, His mighty torrential rains,

Teach us what we should say to Him;
we cannot prepare our case because of our darkness.