Job 13
1 “Behold, my eye has seen all, My ear has heard, and it attends to it.
Behold, mine eye has seen these things, and mine ear has heard [them].
2 According to your knowledge I have known—also I. I am not more fallen than you.
And I know all that ye too know; and I have not less understanding than you.
3 Yet I speak for the Mighty One, And I delight to argue for God.
Nevertheless I will speak to the Lord, and I will reason before him, if he will.
4 And yet, you [are] forgers of falsehood, Physicians of nothing—all of you,
But ye are all bad physicians, and healers of diseases.
5 O that you would keep perfectly silent, And it would be to you for wisdom.
But would that ye were silent, and it would be wisdom to you in the end.
6 Please hear my argument, And attend to the pleadings of my lips,
But hear ye the reasoning of my mouth, and attend to the judgment of my lips.
7 Do you speak perverseness for God? And do you speak deceit for Him?
Do ye not speak before the Lord, and utter deceit before him?
8 Do you accept His face, if you strive for God?
Or will ye draw back? nay do, ye yourselves be judges.
9 Is [it] good that He searches you, If, as one mocks at a man, you mock at Him?
For [it were] well if he would thoroughly search you: for though doing all things [in your power] ye should attach yourselves to him,
10 He surely reproves you, if you accept faces in secret.
he will not reprove you at all the less: but if moreover ye should secretly respect persons,
11 Does His excellence not terrify you? And His dread fall on you?
shall not his whirlpool sweep you round, and terror from him fall upon you?
12 Your remembrances [are] allegories of ashes, For high places of clay [are] your heights.
And your glorying shall prove in the end to you like ashes, and your body [like a body] of clay.
13 Keep silent from me, and I speak, And pass over me what will.
Be silent, that I may speak, and cease from [mine] anger,
14 Why do I take my flesh in my teeth? And my soul put in my hand?
while I may take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand.
15 Behold, He slays me—I do not wait! Only, I argue my ways to His face.
Though the Mighty One should lay hand upon me, forasmuch as he has begun, verily I will speak, and plead before him.
16 Also—He [is] to me for salvation, For the profane do not come before Him.
And this shall turn to me for salvation; for fraud shall have no entrance before him.
17 Hear my word diligently, And my declaration with your ears.
Hear, hear ye my words, for I will declare in your hearing.
18 Now behold, I have set the cause in order, I have known that I am righteous.
Behold, I am near my judgment: I know that I shall appear evidently just.
19 Who [is] he that strives with me? For now I keep silent and gasp.
For who is he that shall plead with me, that I should now be silent, and expire?
20 Only two things, O God, do with me, Then I am not hidden from Your face:
But grant me two things: then I will not hide myself from thy face.
21 Put Your hand far off from me, And do not let Your terror terrify me.
Withhold [thine] hand from me: and let not thy fear terrify me.
22 And You call, and I answer, Or—I speak, and You answer me.
Then shalt thou call, and I will hearken to thee: or thou shalt speak, and I will give thee an answer.
23 How many iniquities and sins do I have? Let me know my transgression and my sin.
How many are my sins and my transgressions? teach me what they are.
24 Why do You hide Your face? And reckon me for an enemy to You?
Wherefore hidest thou thyself from me, and deemest me thine enemy?
25 Do You terrify a leaf driven away? And do You pursue the dry stubble?
Wilt thou be startled [at me], as [at] a leaf shaken by the wind? or wilt thou set thyself against me as against grass borne upon the breeze?
26 For You write bitter things against me, And cause me to possess iniquities of my youth,
for thou hast written evil things against me, and thou hast compassed me with the sins of my youth.
27 And you put my feet in the stocks, And observe all my paths—You set a print on the roots of my feet,
And thou hast placed my foot in the stocks; and thou hast watched all my works, and hast penetrated my heels.
28 And he, as a rotten thing, wears away, A moth has consumed him as a garment.”
[I am as] that which waxes old like a bottle, or like a moth-eaten garment.
