Job 13
1 “Behold, my eye has seen all, My ear has heard, and it attends to it.
Lo, mine eye hath seen all [this], mine ear hath heard and understood it.
2 According to your knowledge I have known—also I. I am not more fallen than you.
What ye know, I know also: I am not inferior to you.
3 Yet I speak for the Mighty One, And I delight to argue for God.
But I will speak to the Almighty, and will find pleasure in reasoning with God;
4 And yet, you [are] forgers of falsehood, Physicians of nothing—all of you,
For ye indeed are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.
5 O that you would keep perfectly silent, And it would be to you for wisdom.
Oh that ye would be altogether silent! and it would be your wisdom.
6 Please hear my argument, And attend to the pleadings of my lips,
Hear now my defence, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips.
7 Do you speak perverseness for God? And do you speak deceit for Him?
Will ye speak unrighteously for God? and for him speak deceit?
8 Do you accept His face, if you strive for God?
Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God?
9 Is [it] good that He searches you, If, as one mocks at a man, you mock at Him?
Will it be well if he should search you out? or as one mocketh at a man, will ye mock at him?
10 He surely reproves you, if you accept faces in secret.
He will certainly reprove you, if ye do secretly accept persons.
11 Does His excellence not terrify you? And His dread fall on you?
Shall not his excellency terrify you? and his dread fall upon you?
12 Your remembrances [are] allegories of ashes, For high places of clay [are] your heights.
Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, your bulwarks are bulwarks of mire.
13 Keep silent from me, and I speak, And pass over me what will.
Hold your peace from me, and I will speak, and let come on me what [will]!
14 Why do I take my flesh in my teeth? And my soul put in my hand?
Wherefore should I 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.
Behold, if he slay me, yet would I trust in him; but I will defend mine own ways before him.
16 Also—He [is] to me for salvation, For the profane do not come before Him.
This also shall be my salvation, that a profane man shall not come before his face.
17 Hear my word diligently, And my declaration with your ears.
Hear attentively my speech and my declaration with your ears.
18 Now behold, I have set the cause in order, I have known that I am righteous.
Behold now, I have ordered the cause; I know that I shall be justified.
19 Who [is] he that strives with me? For now I keep silent and gasp.
Who is he that contendeth with me? For if I were silent now, I should expire.
20 Only two things, O God, do with me, Then I am not hidden from Your face:
Only do not two things unto me; then will I not hide myself from thee.
21 Put Your hand far off from me, And do not let Your terror terrify me.
Withdraw thy hand far from me; and let not thy terror make me afraid:
22 And You call, and I answer, Or—I speak, and You answer me.
Then call, and I will answer; or I will speak, and answer thou me.
23 How many iniquities and sins do I have? Let me know my transgression and my sin.
How many are mine iniquities and sins? Make me to know my transgression and my sin.
24 Why do You hide Your face? And reckon me for an enemy to You?
Wherefore dost thou hide thy face, and countest me for thine enemy?
25 Do You terrify a leaf driven away? And do You pursue the dry stubble?
Wilt thou terrify a driven leaf? and wilt thou pursue dry stubble?
26 For You write bitter things against me, And cause me to possess iniquities of my youth,
For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities 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 puttest my feet in the stocks, and markest all my paths; thou settest a bound about the soles of my feet; —
28 And he, as a rotten thing, wears away, A moth has consumed him as a garment.”
One who, as a rotten thing consumeth, as a garment that the moth eateth.
