13:1 “Behold, my eye has seen all this,
  my ear has heard and understood it.
What you know, I also know;
  I am not inferior to you.
But I would speak to the Almighty,
  and I desire to argue my case with God.
As for you, you whitewash with lies;
  worthless physicians are you all.
Oh that you would keep silent,
  and it would be your wisdom!
Hear now my argument
  and listen to the pleadings of my lips.
Will you speak falsely for God
  and speak deceitfully for him?
Will you show partiality toward him?
  Will you plead the case for God?
Will it be well with you when he searches you out?
  Or can you deceive him, as one deceives a man?
He will surely rebuke you
  if in secret you show partiality.
Will not his majesty terrify you,
  and the dread of him fall upon you?
Your maxims are proverbs of ashes;
  your defenses are defenses of clay.

“Let me have silence, and I will speak,
  and let come on me what may.
Why should I take my flesh in my teeth
  and put my life in my hand?
Though he slay me, I will hope in him; [1]
  yet I will argue my ways to his face.
This will be my salvation,
  that the godless shall not come before him.
Keep listening to my words,
  and let my declaration be in your ears.
Behold, I have prepared my case;
  I know that I shall be in the right.
Who is there who will contend with me?
  For then I would be silent and die.
Only grant me two things,
  then I will not hide myself from your face:
withdraw your hand far from me,
  and let not dread of you terrify me.
Then call, and I will answer;
  or let me speak, and you reply to me.
How many are my iniquities and my sins?
  Make me know my transgression and my sin.
Why do you hide your face
  and count me as your enemy?
Will you frighten a driven leaf
  and pursue dry chaff?
For you write bitter things against me
  and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.
You put my feet in the stocks
  and watch all my paths;
  you set a limit for [2] the soles of my feet.
Man [3] wastes away like a rotten thing,
  like a garment that is moth-eaten.

14:1 “Man who is born of a woman
  is few of days and full of trouble.
He comes out like a flower and withers;
  he flees like a shadow and continues not.
And do you open your eyes on such a one
  and bring me into judgment with you?
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
  There is not one.
Since his days are determined,
  and the number of his months is with you,
  and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,
look away from him and leave him alone, [4]
  that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.

“For there is hope for a tree,
  if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
  and that its shoots will not cease.
Though its root grow old in the earth,
  and its stump die in the soil,
yet at the scent of water it will bud
  and put out branches like a young plant.
But a man dies and is laid low;
  man breathes his last, and where is he?
As waters fail from a lake
  and a river wastes away and dries up,
so a man lies down and rises not again;
  till the heavens are no more he will not awake
  or be roused out of his sleep.
Oh that you would hide me in Sheol,
  that you would conceal me until your wrath be past,
  that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
If a man dies, shall he live again?
  All the days of my service I would wait,
  till my renewal [5] should come.
You would call, and I would answer you;
  you would long for the work of your hands.
For then you would number my steps;
  you would not keep watch over my sin;
my transgression would be sealed up in a bag,
  and you would cover over my iniquity.

“But the mountain falls and crumbles away,
  and the rock is removed from its place;
the waters wear away the stones;
  the torrents wash away the soil of the earth;
  so you destroy the hope of man.
You prevail forever against him, and he passes;
  you change his countenance, and send him away.
His sons come to honor, and he does not know it;
  they are brought low, and he perceives it not.
He feels only the pain of his own body,
  and he mourns only for himself.”

“Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge,
  and fill his belly with the east wind?
Should he argue in unprofitable talk,
  or in words with which he can do no good?
But you are doing away with the fear of God [6]
  and hindering meditation before God.
For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
  and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
Your own mouth condemns you, and not I;
  your own lips testify against you.

“Are you the first man who was born?
  Or were you brought forth before the hills?
Have you listened in the council of God?
  And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
What do you know that we do not know?
  What do you understand that is not clear to us?
Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us,
  older than your father.
Are the comforts of God too small for you,
  or the word that deals gently with you?
Why does your heart carry you away,
  and why do your eyes flash,
that you turn your spirit against God
  and bring such words out of your mouth?
What is man, that he can be pure?
  Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?
Behold, God [7] puts no trust in his holy ones,
  and the heavens are not pure in his sight;
how much less one who is abominable and corrupt,
  a man who drinks injustice like water!

“I will show you; hear me,
  and what I have seen I will declare
(what wise men have told,
  without hiding it from their fathers,
to whom alone the land was given,
  and no stranger passed among them).
The wicked man writhes in pain all his days,
  through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.
Dreadful sounds are in his ears;
  in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him.
He does not believe that he will return out of darkness,
  and he is marked for the sword.
He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
  He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand;
distress and anguish terrify him;
  they prevail against him, like a king ready for battle.
Because he has stretched out his hand against God
  and defies the Almighty,
running stubbornly against him
  with a thickly bossed shield;
because he has covered his face with his fat
  and gathered fat upon his waist
and has lived in desolate cities,
  in houses that none should inhabit,
  which were ready to become heaps of ruins;
he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure,
  nor will his possessions spread over the earth; [8]
he will not depart from darkness;
  the flame will dry up his shoots,
  and by the breath of his mouth he will depart.
Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself,
  for emptiness will be his payment.
It will be paid in full before his time,
  and his branch will not be green.
He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine,
  and cast off his blossom like the olive tree.
For the company of the godless is barren,
  and fire consumes the tents of bribery.
They conceive trouble and give birth to evil,
  and their womb prepares deceit.”

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
  and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
  so he opens not his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
  Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”