Job 13
1 Loe, mine eye hath seene all this: mine eare hath heard, and vnderstande it.
“Behold, my eye has seen all, My ear has heard, and it attends to it.
2 I knowe also as much as you knowe: I am not inferiour vnto you.
According to your knowledge I have known—also I. I am not more fallen than you.
3 But I will speake to the Almightie, and I desire to dispute with God.
Yet I speak for the Mighty One, And I delight to argue for God.
4 For in deede ye forge lyes, and all you are physitions of no value.
And yet, you [are] forgers of falsehood, Physicians of nothing—all of you,
5 Oh, that you woulde holde your tongue, that it might be imputed to you for wisedome!
O that you would keep perfectly silent, And it would be to you for wisdom.
6 Nowe heare my disputation, and giue eare to the arguments of my lips.
Please hear my argument, And attend to the pleadings of my lips,
7 Will ye speake wickedly for Gods defence, and talke deceitfully for his cause?
Do you speak perverseness for God? And do you speak deceit for Him?
8 Will ye accept his person? or will ye contende for God?
Do you accept His face, if you strive for God?
9 Is it well that he shoulde seeke of you? will you make a lye for him, as one lyeth for a man?
Is [it] good that He searches you, If, as one mocks at a man, you mock at Him?
10 He will surely reprooue you, if ye doe secretly accept any person.
He surely reproves you, if you accept faces in secret.
11 Shall not his excellencie make you afraid? and his feare fall vpon you?
Does His excellence not terrify you? And His dread fall on you?
12 Your memories may be compared vnto ashes, and your bodyes to bodyes of clay.
Your remembrances [are] allegories of ashes, For high places of clay [are] your heights.
13 Holde your tongues in my presence, that I may speake, and let come vpon what will.
Keep silent from me, and I speak, And pass over me what will.
14 Wherefore doe I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my soule in mine hande?
Why do I take my flesh in my teeth? And my soul put in my hand?
15 Loe, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him, and I will reprooue my wayes in his sight.
Behold, He slays me—I do not wait! Only, I argue my ways to His face.
16 He shalbe my saluation also: for the hypocrite shall not come before him.
Also—He [is] to me for salvation, For the profane do not come before Him.
17 Heare diligently my wordes, and marke my talke.
Hear my word diligently, And my declaration with your ears.
18 Beholde nowe: if I prepare me to iudgement, I knowe that I shalbe iustified.
Now behold, I have set the cause in order, I have known that I am righteous.
19 Who is he, that will pleade with me? for if I nowe holde my tongue, I dye.
Who [is] he that strives with me? For now I keep silent and gasp.
20 But doe not these two things vnto me: then will I not hide my selfe from thee.
Only two things, O God, do with me, Then I am not hidden from Your face:
21 Withdrawe thine hande from me, and let not thy feare make me afraide.
Put Your hand far off from me, And do not let Your terror terrify me.
22 Then call thou, and I will answere: or let me speake, and answere thou me.
And You call, and I answer, Or—I speak, and You answer me.
23 Howe many are mine iniquities and sinnes? shewe me my rebellion, and my sinne.
How many iniquities and sins do I have? Let me know my transgression and my sin.
24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and takest me for thine enemie?
Why do You hide Your face? And reckon me for an enemy to You?
25 Wilt thou breake a leafe driuen to and from? and wilt thou pursue the drie stubble?
Do You terrify a leaf driven away? And do You pursue the dry stubble?
26 For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possesse the iniquities of my youth.
For You write bitter things against me, And cause me to possess iniquities of my youth,
27 Thou puttest my feete also in the stocks, and lookest narrowly vnto all my pathes, and makest the print thereof in ye heeles of my feet.
And you put my feet in the stocks, And observe all my paths—You set a print on the roots of my feet,
28 Such one consumeth like a rotten thing, and as a garment that is motheaten.
And he, as a rotten thing, wears away, A moth has consumed him as a garment.”
