Job 23

_1-2I still rebel and complain against God;

I can't hold back my groaning.

₃How I wish I knew where to find him,

and knew how to go where he is.

₄I would state my case before him

and present all the arguments in my favour.

₅I want to know what he would say

and how he would answer me.

₆Would God use all his strength against me?

No, he would listen as I spoke.

₇I am honest; I could reason with God;

he would declare me innocent once and for all.

₈I have searched in the east, but God is not there;

I have not found him when I searched in the west.

₉God has been at work in the north and the south,

but still I have not seen him.

₁₀Yet God knows every step I take;

if he tests me, he will find me pure.

₁₁I follow faithfully the road he chooses,

and never wander to either side.

₁₂I always do what God commands;

I follow his will, not my own desires.

₁₃He never changes. No one can oppose him

or stop him from doing what he wants to do.

₁₄He will fulfil what he has planned for me;

that plan is just one of the many he has;

₁₅I tremble with fear before him.

_16-17Almighty God has destroyed my courage.

It is God, not the dark, that makes me afraid —

even though the darkness has made me blind.