1 L o, mine eye hath seen all this, mine ear hath heard and understood it.

2 W hat ye know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto you.

3 S urely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.

4 B ut ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.

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

6 H ear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips.

7 W ill ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?

8 W ill ye accept his person? will ye contend for God?

9 I s it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him?

10 H e will surely reprove you, if ye do secretly accept persons.

11 S hall not his excellency make you afraid? and his dread fall upon you?

12 Y our remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay.

13 H old your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will.

14 W herefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand?

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

16 H e also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.

17 H ear diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears.

18 B ehold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified.

19 W ho is he that will plead with me? for now, if I hold my tongue, I shall give up the ghost.

20 O nly do not two things unto me: then will I not hide myself from thee.

21 W ithdraw thine hand far from me: and let not thy dread make me afraid.

22 T hen call thou, and I will answer: or let me speak, and answer thou me.

23 H ow many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.

24 W herefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?

25 W ilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?

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

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

28 A nd he, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a garment that is moth eaten.