Chapter 13

  Lo, mine eye hath seen all [this], mine ear hath heard and understood it.  

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  What ye know, [the same] do I know also: I [am] not inferior unto you.  

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  Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.  

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  But ye [are] forgers of lies, ye [are] all physicians of no value.  

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  O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.  

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  Hear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips.  

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  Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?  

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  Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God?  

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  Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye [so] mock him?  

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  He will surely reprove you, if ye do secretly accept persons.  

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  Shall not his excellency make you afraid? and his dread fall upon you?  

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  Your remembrances [are] like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay.  

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  Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what [will].  

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  Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand?  

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  Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.  

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  He also [shall be] my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.  

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  Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears.  

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  Behold now, I have ordered [my] cause; I know that I shall be justified.  

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  Who [is] he [that] will plead with me? for now, if I hold my tongue, I shall give up the ghost.  

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  Only do not two [things] unto me: then will I not hide myself from thee.  

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  Withdraw thine hand far from me: and let not thy dread make me afraid.  

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  Then call thou, and I will answer: or let me speak, and answer thou me.  

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  How many [are] mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.  

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  Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?  

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  Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?  

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  For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.  

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  Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and lookest narrowly unto all my paths; thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet.  

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  And he, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a garment that is moth eaten.  

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