Job 13:18–24

⁴I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.

²I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?

³If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand.

¹²For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.

²⁶Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.

²¹O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!

⁷Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.

⁸Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

²⁰If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.

³³Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.

³⁴Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

⁷¶ For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.

⁸He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.

⁹Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.

⁸Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.

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

⁵If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:

³²If thou hast any thing to say, answer me: speak, for I desire to justify thee.

⁵If thou canst answer me, set thy words in order before me, stand up.

⁶Behold, I am according to thy wish in God’s stead: I also am formed out of the clay.

⁷Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee.

¹¹Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

³³Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.

⁸And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

⁹And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

¹⁰And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

³⁴Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me:

³⁵Then would I speak, and not fear him; but it is not so with me.

¹²Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

¹⁵And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;

¹⁶And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

⁷Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee.

³⁴Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me:

¹⁰Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.

²⁰Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,

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

¹⁵Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden?

¹⁶Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood:

¹⁷Which said unto God, Depart from us: and what can the Almighty do for them?

¹²⁰My flesh trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments.

¹⁵Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.

³Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.

⁴Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.

⁵Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.

³Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.

⁴Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.

⁵I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.

⁶Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

¹⁶If I had called, and he had answered me; yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice.

³²For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment.

⁸And if they be bound in fetters, and be holden in cords of affliction;

⁹Then he sheweth them their work, and their transgressions that they have exceeded.

²³Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:

²⁰If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;

²¹Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.

⁵Is not thy wickedness great? and thine iniquities infinite?

¹¹He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.

⁵The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

¹HOW long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?

²⁰And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.

¹⁷And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.

¹⁰Behold, he findeth occasions against me, he counteth me for his enemy,

²⁴Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?

¹⁴Lord, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?

¹⁶Then said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy?

¹⁵Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

²I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.

⁹He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.

²Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;

³When his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness;

²¹Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me.

³⁵Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book.

¹WHY standest thou afar off, O Lord? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?

⁶I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search.

⁷Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?

⁸Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore?

⁹Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.