Job 13:22–24

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.