gaunt with want and hunger, they would gnaw the parched land, in former time desolate and waste.

If you have any words, reply to me; speak, for I want to justify you.

Should he be informed that I want to speak? If a man speaks, surely he would be swallowed up!

I loathe it; I do not want to live forever; leave me alone, for my days are a vapor!

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

They are soaked by mountain rains and huddle in the rocks because they lack shelter.

If someone wishes to contend with him, he cannot answer him one time in a thousand.

But he is unchangeable, and who can change him? Whatever he has desired, he does.

If I have seen anyone about to perish for lack of clothing, or a poor man without a coat,

But because it is heavier than the sand of the sea, that is why my words have been wild.

“Teach me and I, for my part, will be silent; explain to me how I have been mistaken.

But I wish to speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue my case with God.

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

There are those who rebel against the light; they do not know its ways and they do not stay on its paths.

In the dark the robber breaks into houses, but by day they shut themselves in; they do not know the light.

“Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let the person who accuses God give him an answer!”

I will not keep silent about its limbs, and the extent of its might, and the grace of its arrangement.

So the Lord said to Satan, “All right then, everything he has is in your power. Only do not extend your hand against the man himself!” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.