8. perhaps you would say to me, I never went down into the deep, nor as yet into hell, neither did I ever climb up into heaven.
9. Nevertheless now have I asked you but only of the fire and wind, and of the day, things wherethrough you have passed, and without which you can not be, and yet have you given me no answer of them.
10. He said moreover to me, Your own things, that are grown up with you, can you not know;
11. how then can your vessel comprehend the way of the Most High? and how can he that is already worn out with the corrupted world understand incorruption?
12. And when I heard these things I fell upon my face, and said to him, It were better that we were not here at all, than that we should come here and live in the midst of ungodliness, and suffer, and not know wherefore.
13. He answered me, and said, The woods of the trees of the field went forth, and took counsel together,
14. and said, Come, let us go and make war against the sea, that it may depart away before us, and that we may make us more woods.
15. The waves of the sea also in like manner took counsel together, and said, Come, let us go up and subdue the wood of the plain, that there also we may make us another country.
16. The counsel of the wood was in vain, for the fire came and consumed it:
17. likewise also the counsel of the waves of the sea, for the sand stood up and stopped them.
18. If you were judge now between these two, whom would you justify, or whom condemn?
19. I answered and said, it is a foolish counsel that they both have taken, for the ground is given to the wood, and the place of the sea is given to bear his waves.
20. Then answered he me, and said, You have given a right judgement, and why judge you not in your own case?
21. For like as the ground is given to the wood, and the sea to his waves, even so they that dwell upon the earth may understand nothing but that which is upon the earth: and he only that dwells above the heavens may understand the things that are above the height of the heavens.
22. Then answered I and said, I beseech you, O Lord, wherefore is the power of understanding given to me?
23. For it was not in my mind to be curious of the ways above, but of such things as pass by us daily; because Israel is given up as a reproach to the heathen, and the people whom you have loved is given over to ungodly nations, and the law of our forefathers is made of none effect, and the written covenants are nowhere regarded,