1 Lo, mine eye hath seen all this, mine ear hath heard and understood it.
2 What ye know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto you.
3 Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.
4 But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.
5 O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.
6 Hear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips.
7 Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?
8 Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God?
9 Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him?
10 He will surely reprove you, if ye do secretly accept persons.
11 Shall not his excellency make you afraid? and his dread fall upon you?
12 Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay.
13 Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will.
14 Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand?
15 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.
16 He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.
17 Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears.
18 Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified.
19 Who is he that will plead with me? for now, if I hold my tongue, I shall give up the ghost.
20 Only do not two things unto me: then will I not hide myself from thee.
21 Withdraw thine hand far from me: and let not thy dread make me afraid.
22 Then call thou, and I will answer: or let me speak, and answer thou me.
23 How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.
24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?
25 Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?
26 For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.
27 Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and lookest narrowly unto all my paths; thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet.
28 And he, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a garment that is moth eaten.
<html><b>But I would speak</b> I wish only to speak to Him and I wish to debate with Him.</html>
<html><b>combine lies</b> Heb. טפלי שקר,combine false words of falsehood. <b>all of you are quacks</b> Heb. רפאי אלל. Every אֱלִיל in Scripture is an expression of אַל, nought. Our Sages, however, explained that this is the cervical ligament, which [if damaged] has no cure, and it is called אֱלָל.</html>
<html><b>the contentions</b> The proofs.</html>
<html><b>Will you speak unjustly for God</b> Since you come to contend in the place of God, it is not good that you should speak unjustly. <b>and will you speak deceitfully for Him?</b> Heb. ולו [usually “to him”]. For His sake will you speak deceitfully? As in (below 33:6), “Behold I am like your mouth for God (לאל),” and like (Deut. 9:28), “to the land that He spoke for them (להם),” for their benefit, and like (Exod. 14:14), “will fight for you (לכם)”; (Jud. 6:31), “Will you contend for the Baal (לבעל)?” (I find it difficult to compare these instances to here [this verse]. Rather, this is analogous to [Num. 17: 5], “through Moses concerning him ]לו[,” concerning Korah.)</html>
<html><b>Will you show Him favor?</b> Have you come to flatter Him by being partial to Him? <b>for God</b> will you debate deceitfully?</html>
<html><b>Will it be good when He searches you out</b> and you are found to be liars? <b>Will you mock him as one mocks a mortal</b> by saying, “We made liars of ourselves for Your honor”?</html>
<html><b>He will surely reprove you</b> Will He not let you know your speech? When you stand before Him in judgment, will you secretly show Him partiality, saying there. “We showed You partiality”?</html>
<html><b>Will not His majesty</b> Heb. שאתו. [Will not] His exaltation and His awesomeness terrify you? Others define שְׂאֵתוֹ as “His burning fire.” like (II Sam. 5:21), “and David and his men burned them (וישאם),” and like (Jud. 20:38), “a great pillar of (משאת) smoke.”</html>
<html><b>your memorials are compared to ashes</b> Your memorials are compared to ashes. You expect to be compared to Abraham, who said (Genesis 18:27), “I am only dust and ashes.” <b>are like eminences of clay</b> Your eminences ore equal to eminences of clay, compared to Him. The word גביכם means, your height, like (Ezek. 16:24), “and you built for yourself a platform (גב).”</html>
<html><b>and let come upon me what may</b> Whatever comes upon me because of the sin of my outcry, let it come upon me and do not care. For what reason must I bring up and hold…</html>
<html><b>my flesh up into my teeth</b> to afflict myself and force myself to silence? <b>and take my life into my hand</b> to bring my life close to death with the agonies of silence.</html>
<html><b>Behold, let Him kill me</b> I will not separate from Him, and I will always hope for Him. Therefore, there is no rebellion or transgression in my words, but I will reason to His face about my way and my character traits with which I have conducted myself, to know of what He will find me guilty.</html>
<html><b>He is also</b> Just as I am wholehearted with Him, so is He also my salvation, but you will not find favor in His eyes. <b>because a hypocrite cannot come before Him</b> This is what was said to them (below 42:7): “because you did not speak to Me properly.”</html>
<html><b>I have set up judgement</b> [I have prepared] my case. I have arranged my arguments in my heart viz. what to answer.</html>
<html><b>I will be silent and perish</b> If I will not contend, I will be silent and perish.</html>
<html><b>But do not do two things to me</b> viz. Heavenly judgment and earthly judgment. If You come to judgment with one [of these], I will not hide from before You. If with Heavenly judgment, I will say, “I have sinned.” [because] (Prov. 28:13), “He who conceals his sins will not succeed.” If with earthly judgment, even I will not confess to concealing sin. I did not hear this (absent in some editions).</html>
<html><b>Distance Your compulsion from upon me</b> Heb. כפי, Your compulsion, as Elihu answered him (below 33:7), “and my compulsion (ואכפי) shall not weigh heavily upon you.” Some interpret כפך as “your hand.” However, it is difficult for me to say that, because we do not find כַּף in the sense of evil, but [meaning] to protect, as in (Exod. 33:22), “And I will cover you with My hand (כפי).”</html>
<html><b>Why do You hide Your face</b> from seeing the ways of my uprightness?</html>
<html><b>Will You frighten</b> Heb. תערוץ, will You scare?</html>
<html><b>disobediences</b> Heb. מררות. The cases of obstinacy in which I obeyed Your orders, You write [down] but not the good deeds that I performed.</html>
<html><b>in the stocks</b> Heb. בסד. In Aramaic (Pesachim 28a), “The one who makes the stocks (סדנא) sits in his own stocks (בסדניה).” [This is] a large [block of] wood in which the prisoners’ feet are inserted, and in Greek it is astock(?). <b>You engrave</b> Heb. תתחקה. You Yourself engrave my footsteps. So did this one transgress (step—Ed. Furth]), and so he did. Like (Ezek. 43:14), “from the bottom (ומחיק) upon the ground”; [and] (verse 13), “the bottom (וחיק) shall be a cubit.” This is the foundation, affishe in Old French, to affix. (Isa. 49:16): “Behold on [My] hands have I engraved you (חקותיך).”</html>
<html><b>And it is like rot that decays</b> The body You pursue will decay like rot, and it is beneath Your dignity to pursue it.</html>