2 

“Is a crowd of words to go unanswered?

Is a glib talker to carry the day?

3 

Are men to be silenced by your babbling?

Is no one to expose your blasphemies?

4 

You say, ‘My life is pure,

I am clean in thy sight’?

5 

If God would only speak,

and open his lips against you,

6 

unfolding all the mysteries of 6 his wisdom,

the marvel of its methods,

then you would learn that God does not remember all your guilt against you!

7 

Can you discover the deep things of God?

can you reach the Almighty’s range of wisdom?

8 

Higher it is than heaven--how can you match it?

deeper than death--how can you measure it?

9 

Its scope is vaster than the earth,

and wider than the sea.

10 

If he imprisons and arraigns,

who, as you say, can stop him?

11 

Well does he know who are worthless;

he sees guilt and he marks it,

12 

training a worthless creature to be wise,

taming a wild colt of a man.

13 

If you will turn your mind to God

and stretch your hands to him,

14 

if sin you banish from your life,

and evil from your house,

15 

then you can face him unashamed,

you may be firm and fearless;

16 

you shall forget about your misery,

remembering it no more than floods gone by;

17 

your life will rise more radiant than the noon,

your shadows will be like the dawn;

18 

you can have hope and feel secure,

you can look round you and lie down in safety,

19 

lie down with no one to alarm you;

nay, many will be suing for your favour.

20 

But evil men will strain their eyes in vain,

no chance of an escape is left to them;

their one hope is to breathe their last.”