Job 23–24

¹Then Job answered, ²“Even today my complaint is rebellious. His hand is heavy in spite of my groaning. ³Oh that I knew where I might find him! That I might come even to his seat! ⁴I would set my cause in order before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. ⁵I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would tell me. ⁶Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No, but he would listen to me. ⁷There the upright might reason with him, so I should be delivered forever from my judge. ⁸“If I go east, he is not there; if west, I can’t find him; ⁹He works to the north, but I can’t see him. He turns south, but I can’t catch a glimpse of him. ¹⁰But he knows the way that I take. When he has tried me, I shall come out like gold. ¹¹My foot has held fast to his steps. I have kept his way, and not turned away. ¹²I haven’t gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. ¹³But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? What his soul desires, even that he does. ¹⁴For he performs that which is appointed for me. Many such things are with him. ¹⁵Therefore I am terrified at his presence. When I consider, I am afraid of him. ¹⁶For God has made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me. ¹⁷Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither did he cover the thick darkness from my face.

¹“Why aren’t times laid up by the Almighty? Why don’t those who know him see his days? ²There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them. ³They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, and they take the widow’s ox for a pledge. ⁴They turn the needy out of the way. The poor of the earth all hide themselves. ⁵Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, they go out to their work, seeking diligently for food. The wilderness yields them bread for their children. ⁶They cut their food in the field. They glean the vineyard of the wicked. ⁷They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold. ⁸They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter. ⁹There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor, ¹⁰So that they go around naked without clothing. Being hungry, they carry the sheaves. ¹¹They make oil within the walls of these men. They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst. ¹²From out of the populous city, men groan. The soul of the wounded cries out, yet God doesn’t regard the folly. ¹³“These are of those who rebel against the light. They don’t know its ways, nor stay in its paths. ¹⁴The murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy. In the night he is like a thief. ¹⁵The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye shall see me.’ He disguises his face. ¹⁶In the dark they dig through houses. They shut themselves up in the daytime. They don’t know the light. ¹⁷For the morning is to all of them like thick darkness, for they know the terrors of the thick darkness. ¹⁸“They are foam on the surface of the waters. Their portion is cursed in the earth. They don’t turn into the way of the vineyards. ¹⁹Drought and heat consume the snow waters, so does Sheol those who have sinned. ²⁰The womb shall forget him. The worm shall feed sweetly on him. He shall be no more remembered. Unrighteousness shall be broken as a tree. ²¹He devours the barren who don’t bear. He shows no kindness to the widow. ²²Yet God preserves the mighty by his power. He rises up who has no assurance of life. ²³God gives them security, and they rest in it. His eyes are on their ways. ²⁴They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone. Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain. ²⁵If it isn’t so now, who will prove me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?”