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 you 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 you 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 you 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 you the reasoning of my mouth, and attend to the judgement of my lips.
7 Do you speak perverseness for God? And do you speak deceit for Him?
Do you not speak before the Lord, and utter deceit before him?
8 Do you accept His face, if you strive for God?
Or will you draw back? nay do, you 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] you 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 you 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 you 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 judgement: 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 your face.
21 Put Your hand far off from me, And do not let Your terror terrify me.
Withhold [your] hand from me: and let not your fear terrify me.
22 And You call, and I answer, Or—I speak, and You answer me.
Then shall you call, and I will listen to you: or you shall speak, and I will give you 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?
Therefore hide you yourself from me, and deem me your enemy?
25 Do You terrify a leaf driven away? And do You pursue the dry stubble?
Will you be startled [at me], as [at] a leaf shaken by the wind? or will you set yourself 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 you have written evil things against me, and you have 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 you have placed my foot in the stocks; and you have watched all my works, and have 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.
