[1] Job answered: [2] Today my complaint is again bitter; my strength is weighed down because of my groaning. [3] Oh, that I could know how to find him—come to his dwelling place; [4] I would lay out my case before him, fill my mouth with arguments, [5] know the words with which he would answer, understand what he would say to me. [6] Would he contend with me through brute force? No, he would surely listen to me. [7] There those who do the right thing can argue with him; I could escape from my judge forever. [8] Look, I go east; he’s not there, west, and don’t discover him; [9] north in his activity, and I don’t grasp him; he turns south, and I don’t see. [10] Surely he knows my way; when he tests me, I will emerge as gold. [11] My feet have stayed right in his tracks. I have kept his way and not left it, [12] kept the commandments from his lips and not departed, valued the words from his mouth more than my food. [13] He is of one mind; who can reverse it? What he desires, he does. [14] He carries out what is decreed for me and can do many similar things with me. [15] Therefore, I am scared by his presence; I think and become afraid of him. [16] God has weakened my mind; the Almighty has frightened me. [17] Still I’m not annihilated by darkness; he has hidden deep darkness from me.
