Job 23
Young's Literal Translation
Chapter overview
Job wishes he knew where to find God so that he could lay his case before him and hear the reply, confident that he would be acquitted rather than crushed. But God is not to be found forward or backward, left or right, and Job says he has kept to that path while remaining terrified of the one who set it.
Divine hiddennessIntegrityTestingLonging
1And Job answereth and saith: —
2Also — to-day [is] my complaint bitter, My hand hath been heavy because of my sighing.
3O that I had known — and I find Him, I come in unto His seat,
4I arrange before Him the cause, And my mouth fill [with] arguments.
5I know the words He doth answer me, And understand what He saith to me.
6In the abundance of power doth He strive with me? No! surely He putteth [it] in me.
7There the upright doth reason with Him, And I escape for ever from my judge.
8Lo, forward I go — and He is not, And backward — and I perceive him not.
9[To] the left in His working — and I see not, He is covered [on] the right, and I behold not.
10For He hath known the way with me, He hath tried me — as gold I go forth.
11On His step hath my foot laid hold, His way I have kept, and turn not aside,
12The command of His lips, and I depart not. Above my allotted portion I have laid up The sayings of His mouth.
13And He [is] in one [mind], And who doth turn Him back? And His soul hath desired — and He doth [it].
14For He doth complete my portion, And many such things [are] with Him.
15Therefore, from His presence I am troubled, I consider, and am afraid of Him.
16And God hath made my heart soft, And the Mighty hath troubled me.
17For I have not been cut off before darkness, And before me He covered thick darkness.
Young's Literal Translation — Public Domain. Where these translations come from.