13:1  Lo, all -- hath mine eye seen, Heard hath mine ear, and it attendeth to it.

13:2  According to your knowledge I have known -- also I. I am not fallen more than you.

13:3  Yet I for the Mighty One do speak, And to argue for God I delight.

13:4  And yet, ye `are' forgers of falsehood, Physicians of nought -- all of you,

13:5  O that ye would keep perfectly silent, And it would be to you for wisdom.

13:6  Hear, I pray you, my argument, And to the pleadings of my lips attend,

13:7  For God do ye speak perverseness? And for Him do ye speak deceit?

13:8  His face do ye accept, if for God ye strive?

13:9  Is `it' good that He doth search you, If, as one mocketh at a man, ye mock at Him?

13:10  He doth surely reprove you, if in secret ye accept faces.

13:11  Doth not His excellency terrify you? And His dread fall upon you?

13:12  Your remembrances `are' similes of ashes, For high places of clay your heights.

13:13  Keep silent from me, and I speak, And pass over me doth what?

13:14  Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth? And my soul put in my hand?

13:15  Lo, He doth slay me -- I wait not! Only, my ways unto His face I argue.

13:16  Also -- He `is' to me for salvation, For the profane cometh not before Him.

13:17  Hear ye diligently my word, And my declaration with your ears.

13:18  Lo, I pray you, I have set in order the cause, I have known that I am righteous.

13:19  Who `is' he that doth strive with me? For now I keep silent and gasp.

13:20  Only two things, O God, do with me: Then from Thy face I am not hidden.

13:21  Thy hand put far off from me, And Thy terror let not terrify me.

13:22  And call Thou, and I -- I answer, Or -- I speak, and answer Thou me.

13:23  How many iniquities and sins have I? My transgression and my sin let me know.

13:24  Why dost Thou hide Thy face? And reckonest me for an enemy to Thee?

13:25  A leaf driven away dost Thou terrify? And the dry stubble dost Thou pursue?

13:26  For Thou writest against me bitter things, And causest me to possess iniquities of my youth:

13:27  And puttest in the stocks my feet, And observest all my paths, On the roots of my feet Thou settest a print,

13:28  And he, as a rotten thing, weareth away, As a garment hath a moth consumed him.