Job 23:1–24:25
23 Then Job answered and said:
2 “Today also my rcomplaint is bitter;1
my shand is heavy on account of my groaning.
3 Oh, tthat I knew where I might find him,
that I might come even to his useat!
4 I would vlay my case before him
and fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would know what he would answer me
and understand what he would say to me.
6 Would he wcontend with me in the greatness of his power?
No; he would pay attention to me.
7 There an upright man could argue with him,
and I would be acquitted forever by my judge.
8 “Behold, xI go forward, but he is not there,
and backward, but I do not perceive him;
9 on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him;
he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him.
10 But he yknows zthe way that I atake;
when he has btried me, I shall come out as gold.
11 My foot chas held fast to his steps;
I have kept his way and have dnot turned aside.
12 I have not departed from the commandment of his lips;
I have etreasured the words of his mouth more than my fportion of food.
13 But he is unchangeable,2 and gwho can turn him back?
What he hdesires, that he does.
14 For he will complete what he iappoints for me,
and many such things are jin his mind.
15 Therefore I am terrified at his presence;
when I consider, I am in dread of him.
16 God has made my kheart faint;
the Almighty has terrified me;
17 yet I am not silenced because of the darkness,
nor because thick darkness covers my face.
24 “Why are lnot times of judgment mkept by the Almighty,
and why do those who know him never see his ndays?
2 Some move olandmarks;
they seize flocks and pasture them.
3 They drive away the donkey of the fatherless;
they ptake the widow’s ox for a pledge.
4 They qthrust the poor off the road;
the poor of the earth rall hide themselves.
5 Behold, like wild donkeys in the desert
the poor1 sgo out to their toil, tseeking game;
the wasteland yields food for their children.
6 They gather their2 fodder in the field,
and they glean the vineyard of the wicked man.
7 They ulie all night naked, without clothing,
and have no covering in the cold.
8 They are wet with the rain of the mountains
and vcling to the rock for lack of shelter.
9 (There are those who snatch the fatherless child from the breast,
and they take a pledge against the poor.)
10 They go about naked, without clothing;
hungry, they wcarry the sheaves;
11 among the olive rows of the wicked3 they make oil;
they tread the winepresses, but suffer thirst.
12 From out of the city the dying4 groan,
and the soul of xthe wounded cries for help;
yet God charges no one with ywrong.
13 “There are those who rebel zagainst the light,
who are not acquainted with its ways,
and do not stay in its paths.
14 The murderer rises before it is light,
that he amay kill the poor and needy,
and in the night he is like a thief.
15 The eye of the adulterer also waits for bthe twilight,
saying, ‘No ceye will see me’;
and he veils his face.
16 In the dark they ddig through houses;
by day they shut themselves up;
they do not know the light.
17 For edeep darkness is morning to all of them;
for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.
18 “You say, f‘Swift are they on the face of the waters;
their portion is cursed in the land;
no treader turns toward their vineyards.
19 Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters;
so does gSheol those who have sinned.
the worm finds them sweet;
they are hno longer remembered,
so wickedness is broken like ia tree.’
21 “They wrong the barren, childless woman,
and do no good to the widow.
22 Yet God5 prolongs the life of the mighty by his power;
they rise up when they despair of life.
23 He gives them security, and they are supported,
and his jeyes are upon their ways.
24 They are exalted ka little while, and then lare gone;
they are brought low and gathered up like all others;
they are mcut off like the heads of grain.
25 If it is nnot so, who will prove me a liar
and show that there is nothing in what I say?”