If one wished to contend with Him, he could not answer Him one time out of a thousand.

Why do you contend with Him? For He does not give account to you of His business.

That which one is, he has been named already, and it is known that he is man. And he is not able to contend with Him who is mightier than he.

Woe to him who strives with the One who formed him, a potsherd among the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to the one who forms it, What are you making? Or your work, He has no hands?

Thus says Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, and the One who formed him, Do you ask Me of things to come? Do you give command to Me about My sons, and about the work of My hands?

He is near who justifies Me; who will contend with Me? Let us stand together; who is the master of My judgment? Let him come near Me.

Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?

With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him and taught Him in the path of justice; and taught Him knowledge, and made known the way of understanding to Him?

For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Why did I not die from the womb? Why did I not expire when I came forth from the belly?

Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should suck?

Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter of soul,

or to a man whose way is concealed, whom God has covered?

Am I a sea, or a sea serpent, that You set a guard over me?

How long will You not look away from me, and let me alone until I swallow my spittle?

Why then do You not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity? For now I will lie down in the dust, and You shall seek me diligently, but I will no longer be.

For He crushes me with a tempest, and multiplies my wounds without cause.

He will not allow me to catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness.

For He is not a man, as I am, that I may answer Him, and that we should come together in judgment.

Let Him take His rod away from me, and do not let the dread of Him terrify me.

Has it been delightful to You that You oppress, that You despise the work of Your hands, and have shone on the counsel of the wicked?

Are Your days like the days of mortal man? Are Your years like the days of a mighty man,

although You know that I am not wicked, and there is no one who can rescue out of Your hand?

If I have sinned, then You have kept watch over me, and will not acquit me of my iniquity.

If I am exalted, You hunt me like a lion, and return to show Yourself wondrously to me.

Remove Your hand far from me, and let not the dread of You make me afraid.

How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my transgression and my sin.

Will You terrify a leaf driven to and fro? And will You pursue dry stubble?

You put my feet in the stocks, and watch all my paths. You set a limit for the soles of my feet;

For now You number my steps. Do you not watch over my sin?

My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and You cover my iniquity.

The Mighty God has delivered me to the perverse, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.

His archers surround me; He pierces my heart and does not pity; He pours out my gall on the ground.

I have sewn sackcloth over my skin, and have thrust my horn into the dust.

although no violence is in my hands, and my prayer is pure.

Even now, behold, my evidence is in Heaven, and my witness is on high.

Oh, that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleads for the son of his friend!

know then that God has bowed me, and has surrounded me with His net.

He has fenced up my way, so that I cannot pass; and He has set darkness in my paths.

He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; my hope He has uprooted like a tree.

As the Mighty God lives, who has taken away my justice, and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter,

But You have changed to be cruel to me; with the strength of Your hand You oppose me.

What do you mean when you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying: The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are dull?

And when they had received it, they murmured against the landowner,

You will say to me then, Why does He yet find fault? For who has resisted His will?

Does not the potter have authority over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?

and that He might make known the riches of His glory on vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand unto glory,

For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?

For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.