| 1. | Lo, all this my eye has seen; my ear has heard and perceived it. |
| 2. | What you know, I also know; I fall not short of you. |
| 3. | But I would speak with the Almighty; I wish to reason with God. |
| 4. | You are glossing over falsehoods and offering vain remedies, every one of you! |
| 5. | Oh, that you would be altogether silent! This for you would be wisdom. |
| 6. | Hear now the rebuke I shall utter and listen to the reproof from my lips. |
| 7. | Is it for God that you speak falsehood? Is it for him that you utter deceit? |
| 8. | Is it for him that you show partiality? Do you play advocate on behalf of God? |
| 9. | Will it be well when he shall search you out? Would you impose on him as one does on men? |
| 10. | He will openly rebuke you if even in secret you show partiality. |
| 11. | Surely will his majesty affright you and the dread of him fall upon you. |
| 12. | Your reminders are ashy maxims, your fabrications are mounds of clay. |
| 13. | Be silent, let me alone! that I may speak and give vent to my feelings. |
| 14. | I will carry my flesh between my teeth, and take my life in my hand. |
| 15. | Slay me though he might, I will wait for him; I will defend my conduct before him. |
| 16. | And this shall be my salvation, that no impious man can come into his presence. |
| 17. | Pay careful heed to my speech, and give my statement a hearing. |
| 18. | Behold, I have prepared my case, I know that I am in the right. |
| 19. | If anyone can make a case against me, then I shall be silent and die. |
| 20. | These things only do not use against me, then from your presence I need not hide: |
| 21. | Withdraw your hand far from me, and let not the terror of you frighten me. |
| 22. | Then call me, and I will respond; or let me speak first, and answer me. |
| 23. | What are my faults and my sins? My misdeeds and my sins make known to me! |
| 24. | Why do you hide your face and consider me your enemy? |
| 25. | Will you harass a wind-driven leaf, or pursue a withered straw? |
| 26. | For you draw up bitter indictments against me, and punish in me the faults of my youth. |
| 27. | You put my feet in the stocks; you watch all my paths and trace out all my footsteps. |
| 28. | Though he wears out like a leather bottle, like a garment that the moth has consumed? |
