Nor is there an arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both,

Let us evaluate for ourselves what is right; let us come to know among ourselves what is good.

They were saying to God, ‘Turn away from us,’ and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’

who teaches us more than the wild animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’

So they say to God, ‘Turn away from us! We do not want to know your ways.

Tell us what we should say to him. We cannot prepare a case because of the darkness.

Did not the one who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us in the womb?

Thick clouds are a veil for him, so he does not see us, as he goes back and forth in the vault of heaven.’

Is it your opinion that God should recompense it, because you reject this? But you must choose, and not I, so tell us what you know.

For he adds transgression to his sin; in our midst he claps his hands, and multiplies his words against God.”

The gray-haired and the aged are on our side, men far older than your father.

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

And that you visit them every morning, and try them every moment?

Look away from him and let him desist, until he fulfills his time like a hired man.

Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain if we were to pray to him?’

what wise men declare, hiding nothing, from the tradition of their ancestors,

“What is mankind that you make so much of them, and that you pay attention to them?

Will they not instruct you and speak to you, and bring forth words from their understanding?

“Does a wise man answer with blustery knowledge, or fill his belly with the east wind?

“How long until you make an end of words? You must consider, and then we can talk.