Study Desk

Am I a sea, or a sea-monster, That you put a guard over me?

If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, So that I am a burden to myself?

Though I am righteous, my own mouth shall condemn me. Though I am blameless, it shall prove me perverse.

I am blameless. I don't regard myself. I despise my life.

I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that you will not hold me innocent.

For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, That we should come together in judgment.

Then I would speak, and not fear him, For I am not so in myself.

Although you know that I am not wicked, There is no one who can deliver out of your hand.

If I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I still shall not lift up my head, Being filled with disgrace, And conscious of my affliction.

For you say, 'My doctrine is pure, I am clean in your eyes.'

But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you: Yes, who doesn't know such things as these?

I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke.

What you know, I know also. I am not inferior to you.

See now, I have set my cause in order. I know that I am righteous.

Though I am decaying like a rotten thing, Like a garment that is moth-eaten.

"Though I speak, my grief is not subsided. Though I forbear, what am I eased?

"Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry for help, but there is no justice.

He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. My hope he has plucked up like a tree.

Those who dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger. I am an alien in their sight.

My breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.