1 Weary in my soul, I will pour my words with groans upon 1him: I will speak being straitened in the bitterness of my soul. 2 And I will say to the Lord, Do not teach me to be impious; and wherefore hast thou thus judged me? 3 Is it good before thee if I be unrighteous? for thou hast disowned the work of thy hands, and attended to the counsel of the ungodly. 4 Or dost thou see as a mortal sees? or wilt thou look as a man sees? 5 Or is thy life human, or thy years the years of a man, 6 that thou hast enquired into mine iniquity, and searched out my sins? 7 For thou knowest that I have not committed iniquity: but who is he that can deliver out of thy hands?
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8 Thy hands have formed me and made me; afterwards thou didst change thy mind, and smite me. 9 Remember that thou hast made me as clay, and thou dost turn me again to earth. 10 Hast thou not poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese? 11 And thou didst clothe me with skin and flesh, and frame me with bones and sinews. 12 And thou didst bestow upon me life and mercy, and thy oversight has preserved my 2spirit. 13 Having these things in thyself, I know that thou canst do all things; for nothing is impossible with thee.
14 And if I should sin, thou watchest me; and thou hast not cleared me from iniquity. 15 Or if I should be ungodly, woe is me: and if I should be righteous, I cannot lift myself up, for I am full of dishonour. 16 For I am hunted like a lion for slaughter; for again thou hast changed and art terribly destroying me; 17 renewing against me my torture: and thou hast dealt with me in great anger, and thou hast brought 3trials upon me.
18 Why then didst thou bring me out of the womb? and why did I not die, and no eye see me, 19 and I become as if I had not been? for why was I not carried from the womb to the grave? 20 Is not the 4time of my life short? suffer me to rest a little, 21 before I go whence I shall not return, to a land of darkness and gloominess; 22 to a land of perpetual darkness, where there is no light, neither can any one see the life of mortals.
1 Then Sophar the Minæan answered and said,
2 He that speaks much, 5should also hear on the other side: or does the fluent speaker think himself to be righteous? blessed is the short lived offspring of woman. 3 Be not a speaker of many words; for is there none to answer thee? 4 For say not, I am pure in my works, and blameless before him.
5 But oh that the Lord would speak to thee, and open his lips to thee! 6 Then shall he declare to thee the power of wisdom; for it shall be double of that which is with thee: and then shalt thou know, that a just recompence of thy sins has come to thee from the Lord.
7 Wilt thou find out the traces of the Lord? or hast thou come to the end of that which the Almighty has made? 8 Heaven is high; and what wilt thou do? and there are deeper things than those in hell; what dost thou know? 9 Or longer than the measure of the earth, or the breadth of the sea.
10 And if he should overthrow all things, who will say to him, What hast thou done? 11 For he knows the works of transgressors; and when he sees 6wickedness, he will not overlook it.
12 But man vainly 7buoys himself up with words; and a mortal born of woman is like an ass in the desert.
13 For if thou hast made thine heart pure, and liftest up thine hands towards him; 14 if there is any iniquity in thy hands, put if far from thee, and let not unrighteousness lodge in thy habitation. 15 For thus shall thy countenance shine again, as pure water; and thou shalt divest thyself of uncleanness, and shalt not fear. 16 And thou shalt forget trouble, as a wave that has passed by; and thou shalt not be scared. 17 And thy prayer shall be as the morning star, and life shall arise to thee as from the noonday. 18 And thou shalt be confident, because
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1 Alex. myself.
2 Or, life.
3 See chap. 7.1, note.
4 Gr. life of my time.
5 Gr. shall.
6 Gr. improprieties.
7 Gr. floats, or swims.
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