He goes about in company with evildoers, he goes along with wicked men.

“With God are wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his.

With him are strength and prudence; both the one who goes astray and the one who misleads are his.

Their children are firmly established in their presence, their offspring before their eyes.

Is it because of your piety that he rebukes you and goes to judgment with you?

For he fulfills his decree against me, and many such things are his plans.

“Dominion and awesome might belong to God; he establishes peace in his heights.

I will reply to you, and to your friends with you.

will you, with him, spread out the clouds, solid as a mirror of molten metal?

with kings and counselors of the earth who built for themselves places now desolate,

or with princes who possessed gold, who filled their palaces with silver.

“How much less, then, can I answer him and choose my words to argue with him!

They glide by like reed boats, like an eagle that swoops down on its prey.

“But these things you have concealed in your heart; I know that this is with you:

But if only God would speak, if only he would open his lips against you,

“Without a doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you.

What do you know that we don’t know? What do you understand that we don’t understand?

Are God’s consolations too trivial for you; or a word spoken in gentleness to you?

and he contends with God on behalf of man as a man pleads for his friend.

Make then my pledge with you. Who else will put up security for me?