¹Job replied,

²“Just the same, my complaints today remain bitter. In spite of my groaning he is still punishing me.[#23:2. Literally, “his hand is heavy on me.”]

³If only I knew where I could find him so I could go to where he sits in judgment.

⁴There I would lay out my case before him and present all my arguments in full.

⁵I would discover how he would answer me and learn what he has to say to me.

⁶Would he fight against me using his mighty power? No, he would pay attention to what I have to say.

⁷There a good person could reason with him, and I would be acquitted forever by my judge.[#23:7. Or “upright.”]

⁸If I go to the east, he's not there; if I go the west, I don't find him.

⁹If he's working in the north, I don't perceive him; if he's moving south, I don't see him.

¹⁰Yet he always knows where I'm going. When he has proved me, I will come out shining like gold.[#23:10. The image here is of testing gold in a crucible: once the impurities are burned away, the liquid gold has a brilliant surface.]

¹¹I have kept in step with him; I have followed his way without turning aside.

¹²I have not neglected his commands, for I value what he has told me to do more than the food I eat every day.

¹³But God is unchangeable—who can turn him from his purposes? He does whatever he wants to do.

¹⁴So he will finish whatever he has planned for me—and he has many plans for me.

¹⁵That's why I'm terrified at meeting him; when I think of him I tremble with fear.[#23:15. Literally, “his presence.”]

¹⁶God has made me faint-hearted; the Almighty has scared me to death.

¹⁷Yet I'm still here despite the dark—even though I can't see through the utter darkness.”[#23:17. The Hebrew here is difficult: “Because I am not cut off by reason of darkness and from my face which thick darkness covers.”]