Job’s Reply to Eliphaz

¹Then Job answered:

²Today also my complaint is bitter. ,[#23:2 Syr, Tg, Vg; MT reads rebellion; #23:2 Jb 7:11; 10:1; 21:4]

His hand is heavy despite my groaning.

³If only I knew how to find him,

so that I could go to his throne.

⁴I would plead my case before him[#23:4 Jb 5:8; 13:18; 35:14]

and fill my mouth with arguments.

⁵I would learn how he would answer me;[#23:5 Lit the words]

and understand what he would say to me.

⁶Would he prosecute me forcefully?[#23:6 Jb 13:19; 33:13; Is 45:9]

No, he would certainly pay attention to me.

⁷Then an upright man could reason with him,[#23:7 Jb 13:3,15; 15:3]

and I would escape from my Judge , for ever.

⁸If I go east, he is not there,

and if I go west, I cannot perceive him.

⁹When he is at work to the north, I cannot see him;

when he turns south, I cannot find him.

¹⁰Yet he knows the way I have taken;[#23:10 Lit way with me]

when he has tested me, I will emerge as pure gold.

¹¹My feet have followed in his tracks;

I have kept to his way and not turned aside.

¹²I have not departed from the commands from his lips;

I have treasured the words from his mouth

more than my daily food.

¹³But he is unchangeable; who can oppose him?

He does what he desires.

¹⁴He will certainly accomplish what he has decreed for me,

and he has many more things like these in mind.

¹⁵Therefore I am terrified in his presence;[#23:15 Jb 4:14; 22:10; 23:15]

when I consider this, I am afraid of him.

¹⁶God has made my heart faint;[#23:16 Dt 20:3; Is 7:4; Jr 51:46]

the Almighty has terrified me.

¹⁷Yet I am not destroyed by the darkness,[#23:17 Or silenced; #23:17 Jb 19:8; 29:3; 30:26]

by the thick darkness that covers my face.