Job 13

1 Lo, mine eye has seen all this, mine ear has heard and understood it.

“Behold, my eye has seen all, My ear has heard, and it attends to it.

2 What all of you know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto you.

According to your knowledge I have known—also I. I am not more fallen than you.

3 Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.

Yet I speak for the Mighty One, And I delight to argue for God.

4 But all of you are forgers of lies, all of you are all physicians of no value.

And yet, you [are] forgers of falsehood, Physicians of nothing—all of you,

5 O that all of you would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.

O that you would keep perfectly silent, And it would be to you for wisdom.

6 Hear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips.

Please hear my argument, And attend to the pleadings of my lips,

7 Will all of you speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?

Do you speak perverseness for God? And do you speak deceit for Him?

8 Will all of you accept his person? will all of you contend for God?

Do you accept His face, if you strive for God?

9 Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocks another, do all of you so mock him?

Is [it] good that He searches you, If, as one mocks at a man, you mock at Him?

10 He will surely reprove you, if all of you do secretly accept persons.

He surely reproves you, if you accept faces in secret.

11 Shall not his excellency make you afraid? and his dread fall upon you?

Does His excellence not terrify you? And His dread fall on you?

12 Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay.

Your remembrances [are] allegories of ashes, For high places of clay [are] your heights.

13 Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will.

Keep silent from me, and I speak, And pass over me what will.

14 Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand?

Why do I take my flesh in my teeth? And my soul put in my hand?

15 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.

Behold, He slays me—I do not wait! Only, I argue my ways to His face.

16 He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.

Also—He [is] to me for salvation, For the profane do not come before Him.

17 Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears.

Hear my word diligently, And my declaration with your ears.

18 Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified.

Now behold, I have set the cause in order, I have known that I am righteous.

19 Who is he that will plead with me? for now, if I hold my tongue, I shall give up the spirit.

Who [is] he that strives with me? For now I keep silent and gasp.

20 Only do not two things unto me: then will I not hide myself from you.

Only two things, O God, do with me, Then I am not hidden from Your face:

21 Withdraw your hand far from me: and let not your dread make me afraid.

Put Your hand far off from me, And do not let Your terror terrify me.

22 Then call you, and I will answer: or let me speak, and answer you me.

And You call, and I answer, Or—I speak, and You answer me.

23 How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.

How many iniquities and sins do I have? Let me know my transgression and my sin.

24 Wherefore hide you your face, and hold me for your enemy?

Why do You hide Your face? And reckon me for an enemy to You?

25 Will you break a leaf driven back and forth? and will you pursue the dry stubble?

Do You terrify a leaf driven away? And do You pursue the dry stubble?

26 For you write bitter things against me, and make me to possess the iniquities of my youth.

For You write bitter things against me, And cause me to possess iniquities of my youth,

27 You put my feet also in the stocks, and look narrowly unto all my paths; you set a print upon the heels of my feet.

And you put my feet in the stocks, And observe all my paths—You set a print on the roots of my feet,

28 And he, as a rotten thing, consumes, as a garment that is moth eaten.

And he, as a rotten thing, wears away, A moth has consumed him as a garment.”