Job 13
1 “Behold, my eye has seen all, My ear has heard, and it attends to it.
Lo, all [this] hath my eye seen, my ear hath heard and noted it for itself;
2 According to your knowledge I have known—also I. I am not more fallen than you.
As much as ye know, do I also know: I do not fall short compared with you.
3 Yet I speak for the Mighty One, And I delight to argue for God.
However, I would gladly speak to the Almighty; and to argue with God do I desire.
4 And yet, you [are] forgers of falsehood, Physicians of nothing—all of you,
But ye are inventors of falsehood, physicians of no value are all of you.
5 O that you would keep perfectly silent, And it would be to you for wisdom.
Oh, who would grant that ye might keep a profound silences! and it would he accounted unto you as wisdom.
6 Please hear my argument, And attend to the pleadings of my lips,
Do hearken but to my reasoning, and listen to the pleadings of my lips.
7 Do you speak perverseness for God? And do you speak deceit for Him?
Will ye speak wrong things for God? and will ye speak for him deceitfully?
8 Do you accept His face, if you strive for God?
Will ye show him undue favor, when 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 overreacheth another mortal, do ye expect to overreach him?
10 He surely reproves you, if you accept faces in secret.
He will surely reprove you, if in secret you show him undue favor.
11 Does His excellence not terrify you? And His dread fall on you?
Doth 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.
The things you remember are mere proverbs of ashes, your high-places are high-places of clay.
13 Keep silent from me, and I speak, And pass over me what will.
Keep silence toward me, that I may indeed speak, and let pass over me what will.
14 Why do I take my flesh in my teeth? And my soul put in my hand?
Whatever it may cost, I will take my flesh in my teeth, and my life will I put in my hand.
15 Behold, He slays me—I do not wait! Only, I argue my ways to His face.
Lo, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: only I will argue my own ways before him.
16 Also—He [is] to me for salvation, For the profane do not come before Him.
Even he will come to my assistance; for a hypocrite cannot come before him.
17 Hear my word diligently, And my declaration with your ears.
Listen well to my word, and to my demonstration with your ears.
18 Now behold, I have set the cause in order, I have known that I am righteous.
Behold now, I have arrayed my cause: I know that I shall be indeed 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 now, if I keep silence, I must perish.
20 Only two things, O God, do with me, Then I am not hidden from Your face:
Only two things do not unto me: then will I not hide myself from thy presence.
21 Put Your hand far off from me, And do not let Your terror terrify me.
Remove 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.
Then call thou, and I will answer; or let me speak, and do thou reply to 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? my transgression and my sin let me know.
24 Why do You hide Your face? And reckon me for an enemy to You?
Wherefore wilt thou hide thy face, and regard me as an enemy unto thee?
25 Do You terrify a leaf driven away? And do You pursue the dry stubble?
Wilt thou terrify a leaf driven about [by the wind]? and wilt thou pursue dry stubble?
26 For You write bitter things against me, And cause me to possess iniquities of my youth,
That thou writest bitter decrees against me, and assignest unto me 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 [that] thou puttest my feet in the stocks, and watchest narrowly all my paths; [and] settest for thyself a mark upon the soles of my feet?
28 And he, as a rotten thing, wears away, A moth has consumed him as a garment.”
And yet the body decayeth like a rotten thing, as a garment that the moth hath eaten.
