Job 23

Job Answers

23Then Job answered:

²“My complaint is still bitter today.

I groan because God’s heavy hand is on me.

³I wish I knew where to find God

so I could go to where he lives.

⁴I would present my case before him

and fill my mouth with arguments.

⁵I would learn how he would answer me

and would think about what he would say.

⁶Would he not argue strongly against me?

No, he would really listen to me.

⁷Then an honest person could present his case to God,

and I would be saved forever by my judge.

⁸“If I go to the east, God is not there;

if I go to the west, I do not see him.

⁹When he is at work in the north, I catch no sight of him;

when he turns to the south, I cannot see him.

¹⁰But God knows the way that I take,

and when he has tested me, I will come out like gold.

¹¹My feet have closely followed his steps;

I have stayed in his way;

I did not turn aside.

¹²I have never left the commands he has spoken;

I have treasured his words more than my own.

¹³“But he is the only God.

Who can come against him?

He does anything he wants.

¹⁴He will do to me what he said he would do,

and he has many plans like this.

¹⁵That is why I am frightened of him;

when I think of this, I am afraid of him.

¹⁶God has made me afraid;

the Almighty terrifies me.

¹⁷But I am not hidden by the darkness,

by the thick darkness that covers my face.