ኢዮብ 23

Job: if only I knew where to find him

¹Then Job answered: ²Even today my complaint is defiant; \q the hand on me weighs heavier than my groaning.^{ab 3}If only I knew how to find him, \q how to come to his seat! ⁴I would lay out my case before him, \q and my mouth would be full of arguments. ⁵I would learn what he would answer me \q and understand what he would say to me. ⁶Would he use his great power to argue against me? \q No, he would surely pay attention to me. ⁷There an upright person could reason with him, \q and I would be set free by my judge forever. ⁸I go to the east, and he is not there, \q to the west, and I cannot make him out; ⁹in the north, where he is at work, I do not see him; \q he turns to the south, and I have no sight of him.^{c 10}Yet he knows the road I am on; \q when he has tried me, I will come out like gold. ¹¹My foot has held to his footsteps; \q I have kept his way and not turned away from it. ¹²From what his lips commanded I have not turned back; \q I have stored up the words of his mouth above the food I live on.^{d 13}But he is of one mind, and who can turn him back? \q Whatever he desires, he does.^{e 14}For he will carry out what he has decreed for me, \q and he has many more decrees like it. ¹⁵So I am terrified in his presence; \q when I consider, I dread him. ¹⁶God has weakened my heart; \q the Almighty has filled me with terror. ¹⁷Yet it is not darkness that has silenced me, \q nor the deep gloom that covers my face.^f