Job 23 - 24 - Legacy Standard Bible

Job 23 - 24

Where Is God?

Then Job answered and said, 2

“Even today my musing is rebellion;

His hand is heavy despite my groaning.

Oh that I knew where I might find Him,

That I might come to His seat!

I would arrange my case for justice before Him

And fill my mouth with arguments.

I would know the words which He would answer,

And discern what He would say to me.

Would He contend with me by the greatness of His power?

No, surely He would pay attention to me.

There the upright would argue with Him;

And I would have escaped forever from my Judge.

“Behold, I go forward but He is not there,

And backward, but I cannot discern Him;

When He acts on the left, I cannot behold Him;

He turns on the right, I cannot see Him.

But He knows the way I take;

When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.

My foot has held fast to His path;

I have kept His way and not turned aside.

I have not departed from the command of His lips;

I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my portion of food.

But He is unique and who can turn Him?

And what His soul desires, that He does.

For He performs what is apportioned for me,

And many such decrees are with Him.

Therefore, I would be dismayed at His presence;

I carefully consider, and I am in dread of Him.

It is God who has made my heart faint,

And the Almighty who has dismayed me,

But I am not silenced by the darkness,

Nor thick darkness which covers me.

Who Can Prove Me a Liar?

“Why are times not stored up by the Almighty,

And why do those who know Him not behold His days?

Some move the boundaries;

They seize and devour flocks.

They drive away the donkeys of the orphans;

They take the widow’s ox for a pledge.

They push the needy aside from the road;

The afflicted of the land are made to hide themselves altogether.

Behold, as wild donkeys in the wilderness

They go forth seeking food earnestly in their work,

The desert becomes for him a place of bread for his young ones.

They harvest their fodder in the field

And glean the vineyard of the wicked.

They spend the night naked, without clothing,

And have no covering against the cold.

They are wet with the mountain rains

And hug the rock for want of a shelter.

Others snatch the orphan from the breast,

And against the afflicted they take a pledge.

Those poor ones walk about naked without clothing,

And hungry ones carry the sheaves.

Within the walls they produce oil;

They tread wine presses but thirst.

From the city men groan,

And the souls of the wounded cry out;

Yet God does not pay attention to such offense.

“Others have been with those who rebel against the light;

They do not want to recognize its ways

Nor abide in its paths.

The murderer arises at dawn;

He kills the afflicted and the needy,

And at night he is as a thief.

The eye of the adulterer keeps watch for the twilight,

Saying, ‘No eye will see me.’

And he keeps his face hidden.

In the dark they dig into houses;

They shut themselves up by day;

They do not know the light.

For the morning is the same to him as the shadow of death,

For he recognizes the terrors of the shadow of death.

“They are insignificant on the surface of the water;

Their portion is cursed on the earth.

They do not turn toward the vineyards.

Drought and heat seize the snow waters,

So does Sheol those who have sinned.

A mother will forget him;

The worm feasts sweetly till he is no longer remembered.

And unrighteousness will be broken like a tree.

He feeds on the barren woman who does not give birth

And does no good for the widow.

But He drags off the mighty by His power;

He rises, but no one believes in his life.

He provides them with security, and they are supported;

And His eyes are on their ways.

They are exalted a little while, then they are gone;

Moreover, they are brought low and like everything gathered up;

Even like the heads of grain they are cut off.

Now if it is not so, who can prove me a liar,

And make my speech worthless?”