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, do I know also; I am not inferior unto you.
3 Yet I speak for the Mighty One, And I delight to argue for God.
Notwithstanding I would 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,
But ye are plasterers 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 altogether hold your peace! and it would be your wisdom.
6 Please hear my argument, And attend to the pleadings of my lips,
Hear now my reasoning, 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 talk deceitfully for Him?
8 Do you accept His face, if you strive for God?
Will ye show Him favour? Will ye contend for God?
9 Is [it] good that He searches you, If, as one mocks at a man, you mock at Him?
Would it be good that He should search you out? Or as one mocketh a man, will ye mock Him?
10 He surely reproves you, if you accept faces in secret.
He will surely reprove you, if ye do secretly show favour.
11 Does His excellence not terrify you? And His dread fall on you?
Shall not His majesty terrify you, and His dread fall upon you?
12 Your remembrances [are] allegories of ashes, For high places of clay [are] your heights.
Your memorials shall be like unto ashes, your eminences to eminences of clay.
13 Keep silent from me, and I speak, And pass over me what will.
Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may 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? I will 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 He slay me, yet will I trust in Him; but I will argue my 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 hypocrite cannot come before Him.
17 Hear my word diligently, And my declaration with your ears.
Hear diligently my speech, and let my declaration be in your ears.
18 Now behold, I have set the cause in order, I have known that I am righteous.
Behold now, I have ordered my 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 will contend with me? For then would I hold my peace and die.
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 Thou, and I will answer; or let me 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 hidest Thou Thy face, and holdest me for Thine enemy?
25 Do You terrify a leaf driven away? And do You pursue the dry stubble?
Wilt Thou harass a driven leaf? And wilt Thou pursue the dry stubble?
26 For You write bitter things against me, And cause me to possess iniquities of my youth,
That Thou shouldest write bitter things against me, and make me to inherit 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,
Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and lookest narrowly unto all my paths; Thou drawest Thee a line about the soles of my feet;
28 And he, as a rotten thing, wears away, A moth has consumed him as a garment.”
Though I am like a wine-skin that consumeth, like a garment that is moth-eaten.
