1 Then Job answered and said,
2 Today I will also speak with bitterness; my stroke is heavier than my groaning. 3 Oh, that I knew where I might find him! That I might come even to his seat! 4 I would order judgment before him and fill my mouth with arguments. 5 I would know the words which he would answer me and understand what he would say unto me. 6 Will he plead against me with his great power? No, but rather he would put it in me. 7 There the righteous might dispute with him; and should I escape for ever from the one who condemns me.
8 Behold, I shall go to the east and not find him; and to the west, but I cannot perceive him; 9 if he is working to the north, I shall not see him; to the south, he hides himself, that I shall not see him. 10 But he has known the way that I take; he has tried me, and I have come forth as gold. 11 My feet have held to his steps, I have kept his way, and have not departed. 12 Neither have I separated myself from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. 13 But if he determines something, who can turn him? His soul desired it, and he did it. 14 Therefore, he will finish that which is necessary for me; and there are many such things in him. 15 Therefore, I shall fear before his face; I shall consider, and I shall fear him. 16 For God has made my heart tender, and the Almighty has frightened me. 17 Why was I not cut off before the darkness, neither has he covered my face with the darkness.
1 Why, seeing that times are not hidden from the Almighty, do those that know him not see his days? 2 Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks and feed thereof. 3 They drive away the ass of the fatherless; they take the widow’s ox for a pledge. 4 They turn the needy out of the way; and all the poor of the earth hide themselves from them. 5 Behold, as wild asses in the desert, they go forth to their work, rising early for a prey; the wilderness yields food for them and for their children. 6 In the field they reap their fodder, and the wicked gather the vintage that is not theirs. 7 They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the cold. 8 They are wet with the floods of the mountains and embrace the rock for want of a covering. 9 They pluck the fatherless from the breast and take a pledge of the poor. 10 They cause the naked to go without clothing, and they take away the sheaves from the hungry. 11 They press oil within their walls and tread their winepresses and suffer thirst. 12 Men groan from out of the city, and the souls of the dead cry out; yet God did not hinder them.
13 They are among those that rebel against the light; they have never known its ways nor abided in its paths. 14 The murderer rises with the light, kills the poor and the needy, and in the night is as a thief. 15 The eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me; and disguises his face. 16 In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime; they do not know the light. 17 For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death; if they are known, the terrors of the shadow of death come over them.
18 They are swift upon the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth; they never come by the way of the vineyards. 19 Drought and heat consume the snow waters; so does Sheol consume those who have sinned. 20 The Merciful One shall forget them; the worm shall feed sweetly on them; they shall never be remembered again; and iniquity shall be broken as a tree.
21 He afflicted the barren woman that did not conceive and never did good unto the widow. 22 He furthered the violent with his power; he did not lend to anyone in his life. 23 If he gave credit to some to take them over, his eyes were upon their ways. 24 They were exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all others and cut off as the tops of the heads of grain. 25 And if it is not so now, who will make me a liar or reduce my speech to nothing?