Even if he slays me, I will hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face!

His troops advance together; they throw up a siege ramp against me, and they camp around my tent.

No one denounces his conduct to his face; no one repays him for what he has done.

Is it of any special benefit to the Almighty that you should be righteous, or is it any gain to him that you make your ways blameless?

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

“You say, ‘He is foam on the face of the waters; their portion of the land is cursed so that no one goes to their vineyard.

I chose the way for them and sat as their chief; I lived like a king among his troops; I was like one who comforts mourners.

If my footsteps have strayed from the way, if my heart has gone after my eyes, or if anything has defiled my hands,

because they have turned away from following him, and have not understood any of his ways,

“In what direction does light reside, and darkness, where is its place,

In what direction is lightning dispersed, or the east winds scattered over the earth?

Indeed, these are but the outer fringes of his ways! How faint is the whisper we hear of him! But who can understand the thunder of his power?”