Should it be according to thy mind? he will recompense it, whether thou refuse, or whether thou choose; and not I: therefore speak what thou knowest.
'Should God recompense (sinners) according to thy mind? Then it is for thee to reject and to choose, and not me' (Umbreit); or, as Maurer translates, the latter clause, 'For thou hast rejected (God's way of recompensing; state, therefore, thy way), for thou must choose, not I' - i:e., it is thy part, not mine, to show a better way than God's. The English version is good sense thus: 'Should it (God's dealing) be according to thy mind? (literally, from with thee.) (Nay, it is preposterous to think God will govern according to thy ideas and not His own.) He will recompense it (iniquity, Job 34:32), whether thou refuse, or whether THOU choose (whether thou likest or likest not His way of dealing: I say "THOU"): for it is not I (who call in question God's dealings): therefore, speak what thou knowest' (not what thou knowest not-namely, God's ways of governing the world). The "thou" is in emphatical opposition to "I," and is therefore expressed in the Hebrew.