If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands clean with lye,

“Do you have eyes of flesh, or do you see as a human being sees?

Are your days like the days of a mortal, or your years like the years of a mortal,

“Can you discover the essence of God? Can you find out the perfection of the Almighty?

“As for you, if you prove faithful, and if you stretch out your hands toward him,

if iniquity is in your hand – put it far away, and do not let evil reside in your tents.

He would certainly rebuke you if you secretly showed partiality!

Although its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump begins to die in the soil,

Surely mockery is with me; my eyes must dwell on their hostility.

If I hope for the grave to be my home, if I spread out my bed in darkness,

Will it go down to the barred gates of death? Will we descend together into the dust?”

If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and plead my disgrace against me,

Even though his stature reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds,

“If evil is sweet in his mouth and he hides it under his tongue,

‘Surely our enemies are destroyed, and fire consumes their wealth.’

If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up; if you remove wicked behavior far from your tent,

Will he find delight in the Almighty? Will he call out to God at all times?

If he piles up silver like dust and stores up clothing like mounds of clay,

Have I not wept for the unfortunate? Was not my soul grieved for the poor?

If I have walked in falsehood, and if my foot has hastened to deceit –