²⁴ If I have made gold my hope,
or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;
²⁵ if I rejoiced because my wealth was great,
and because mine hand had gotten much;
²⁶ if I beheld the sun when it shined,
or the moon walking in brightness;
²⁷ and my heart hath been secretly enticed,
or my mouth hath kissed my hand:
²⁸ this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge:
for I should have denied the God that is above.

²⁹ If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me,
or lifted up myself when evil found him:
³⁰ neither have I suffered my mouth to sin
by wishing a curse to his soul.
³¹ If the men of my tabernacle said not,
Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.
³² The stranger did not lodge in the street:
but I opened my doors to the traveller.
³³ If I covered my transgressions as Adam,
by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:
³⁴ did I fear a great multitude,
or did the contempt of families terrify me,
that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?

³⁵ Oh that one would hear me!
behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me,
and that mine adversary had written a book.
³⁶ Surely I would take it upon my shoulder,
and bind it as a crown to me.
³⁷ I would declare unto him the number of my steps;
as a prince would I go near unto him.
³⁸ If my land cry against me,
or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;
³⁹ if I have eaten the fruits thereof without money,
or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:
⁴⁰ let thistles grow instead of wheat,
and cockle instead of barley.