6. Your own mouth condemns you, not mine;your own lips testify against you.
7. ‘Are you the first man ever born?Were you brought forth before the hills?
8. Do you listen in on God’s council?Do you have a monopoly on wisdom?
9. What do you know that we do not know?What insights do you have that we do not have?
10. The grey-haired and the aged are on our side,men even older than your father.
11. Are God’s consolations not enough for you,words spoken gently to you?
12. Why has your heart carried you away,and why do your eyes flash,
13. so that you vent your rage against Godand pour out such words from your mouth?
14. ‘What are mortals, that they could be pure,or those born of woman, that they could be righteous?
15. If God places no trust in his holy ones,if even the heavens are not pure in his eyes,
16. how much less mortals, who are vile and corrupt,who drink up evil like water!
17. ‘Listen to me and I will explain to you;let me tell you what I have seen,
18. what the wise have declared,hiding nothing received from their ancestors
19. (to whom alone the land was givenwhen no foreigners moved among them):
20. all his days the wicked man suffers torment,the ruthless man through all the years stored up for him.
21. Terrifying sounds fill his ears;when all seems well, marauders attack him.
22. He despairs of escaping the realm of darkness;he is marked for the sword.