Job 23

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