Grant me a trial

¹Job answered:

²Today my complaint is again bitter;[#23.2 Vulg, Syr, Tg; MT my complaint is rebellious.]

my strength is weighed down because of my groaning.

³Oh, that I could know how to find him—

come to his dwelling place;

⁴I would lay out my case before him,

⁵know the words with which he would answer,

⁶Would he contend with me through brute force?

No, he would surely listen to me.

⁷There those who do the right thing can argue with him;

I could escape from my judge forever.

God’s hiddenness

⁸Look, I go east; he’s not there,

west, and don’t discover him;

⁹north in his activity, and I don’t grasp him;

he turns south, and I don’t see.

¹⁰Surely he knows my way;

when he tests me,

I will emerge as gold.

¹¹My feet have stayed right in his tracks.

I have kept his way and not left it,

¹²kept the commandments from his lips and not departed,

valued the words from his mouth more than my food.

Dread

¹³He is of one mind; who can reverse it?

What he desires, he does.

¹⁴He carries out what is decreed for me

and can do many similar things with me.

¹⁵Therefore, I am scared by his presence;

I think and become afraid of him.

¹⁶God has weakened my mind;

the Almighty has frightened me.

¹⁷Still I’m not annihilated by darkness;

he has hidden deep darkness from me.