Job 13
1 “Behold, my eye has seen all, My ear has heard, and it attends to it.
Behold my eye hath seen all these things, and my ear hath heard them, and I have understood them all.
2 According to your knowledge I have known—also I. I am not more fallen than you.
According to your knowledge I also know: neither am I inferior to you.
3 Yet I speak for the Mighty One, And I delight to argue for God.
But yet I will speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.
4 And yet, you [are] forgers of falsehood, Physicians of nothing—all of you,
Having first shewn that you are forgers of lies, and maintainers of perverse opinions.
5 O that you would keep perfectly silent, And it would be to you for wisdom.
And I wish you would hold your peace, that you might be thought to be wise men.
6 Please hear my argument, And attend to the pleadings of my lips,
Hear ye therefore my reproof, and attend to the judgment of my lips.
7 Do you speak perverseness for God? And do you speak deceit for Him?
Hath God any need of your lie, that you should speak deceitfully for him?
8 Do you accept His face, if you strive for God?
Do you accept his person, and do you endeavour to judge for God?
9 Is [it] good that He searches you, If, as one mocks at a man, you mock at Him?
Or shall it please him, from whom nothing can be concealed? or shall he be deceived as a man, with your deceitful dealings?
10 He surely reproves you, if you accept faces in secret.
He shall reprove you, because in secret you accept his person.
11 Does His excellence not terrify you? And His dread fall on you?
As soon as he shall move himself, he shall trouble you: and his dread shall fall upon you.
12 Your remembrances [are] allegories of ashes, For high places of clay [are] your heights.
Your remembrance shall be compared to ashes, and your necks shall be brought to clay.
13 Keep silent from me, and I speak, And pass over me what will.
Hold your peace a little while, that I may speak whatsoever my mind shall suggest to me.
14 Why do I take my flesh in my teeth? And my soul put in my hand?
Why do I tear my flesh with my teeth, and carry my soul in my hands?
15 Behold, He slays me—I do not wait! Only, I argue my ways to His face.
Although he should bill me, I will trust in him: but yet I will reprove my ways in his sight.
16 Also—He [is] to me for salvation, For the profane do not come before Him.
And he shall be my saviour: for no hypocrite shall come before his presence.
17 Hear my word diligently, And my declaration with your ears.
Hear ye my speech, and receive with Sour ears hidden truths.
18 Now behold, I have set the cause in order, I have known that I am righteous.
If I shall be judged, I know that I shall be found just.
19 Who [is] he that strives with me? For now I keep silent and gasp.
Who is he that will plead against me? let him come: why am I consumed holding my peace?
20 Only two things, O God, do with me, Then I am not hidden from Your face:
Two things only do not to me, and then from thy face I shall not be hid:
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 dread terrify me.
22 And You call, and I answer, Or—I speak, and You answer me.
Call me, and I will answer thee: or else I will speak, and do thou answer me.
23 How many iniquities and sins do I have? Let me know my transgression and my sin.
How many are my iniquities and sins? make me know my crimes and offences.
24 Why do You hide Your face? And reckon me for an enemy to You?
Why hidest thou thy face, and thinkest me thy enemy?
25 Do You terrify a leaf driven away? And do You pursue the dry stubble?
Against a leaf, that is carried away with the wind, thou shewest thy power, and thou pursuest a dry straw.
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 wilt consume me for 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,
Thou hast put my feet in the stocks, and hast observed all my paths, and hast considered the steps of my feet:
28 And he, as a rotten thing, wears away, A moth has consumed him as a garment.”
Who am to be consumed as rottenness, and as a garment that is moth-eaten.
