13“Look, my eye has seen all this, my ear has heard and understood it. 2What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you. 3But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue my case with God. 4As for you, you whitewash with lies; all of you are worthless physicians. 5If you would only keep silent, that would be your wisdom! 6Hear now my reasoning, and listen to the pleadings of my lips. 7Will you speak falsely for God, and speak deceitfully for him? 8Will you show partiality toward him, will you plead the case for God? 9Will it be well with you when he searches you out? Or can you deceive him, as one person deceives another? 10He will surely rebuke you if in secret you show partiality. 11Will not his majesty terrify you, and the dread of him fall upon you? 12Your maxims are proverbs of ashes, your defenses are defenses of clay.
13“Let me have silence, and I will speak, and let come on me what may. 14I will take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand. 15See, he will kill me; I have no hope; but I will defend my ways to his face. 16This will be my salvation, that the godless shall not come before him. 17Listen carefully to my words, and let my declaration be in your ears. 18I have indeed prepared my case; I know that I shall be vindicated. 19Who is there that will contend with me? For then I would be silent and die. 20Only grant two things to me, then I will not hide myself from your face: 21withdraw your hand far from me, and do not let dread of you terrify me. 22Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, and you reply to me.
23How many are my iniquities and my sins? Make me know my transgression and my sin. 24Why do you hide your face, and count me as your enemy? 25Will you frighten a windblown leaf and pursue dry chaff? 26For you write bitter things against me, and make me reap the iniquities of my youth. 27You put my feet in the stocks, and watch all my paths; you set a bound to the soles of my feet. 28One wastes away like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.
14“A mortal, born of woman, few of days and full of trouble, 2comes up like a flower and withers, flees like a shadow and does not last. 3Do you fix your eyes on such a one? Do you bring me into judgment with you? 4Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one can. 5Since their days are determined, and the number of their months is known to you, and you have appointed the bounds that they cannot pass, 6look away from them, and desist, that they may enjoy, like laborers, their days.
7“For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease. 8Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stump dies in the ground, 9yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth branches like a young plant. 10But mortals die, and are laid low; humans expire, and where are they? 11As waters fail from a lake, and a river wastes away and dries up, 12so mortals lie down and do not rise again; until the heavens are no more, they will not awake or be roused out of their sleep. 13Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath is past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me! 14If mortals die, will they live again? All the days of my service I would wait until my release should come. 15You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands.
16For then you would not number my steps, you would not keep watch over my sin; 17my transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity. 18“But the mountain falls and crumbles away, and the rock is removed from its place; 19the waters wear away the stones; the torrents wash away the soil of the earth; so you destroy the hope of mortals. 20You prevail forever against them, and they pass away; you change their countenance, and send them away. 21Their children come to honor, and they do not know it; they are brought low, and it goes unnoticed. 22They feel only the pain of their own bodies, and mourn only for themselves.”
From the oremus Bible Browser https://bible.oremus.org v2.9.2 30 June 2021.