Job’s Reply to Eliphaz
1Then Job answered:
2Today also my complaint is bitter.
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
and fill my mouth with arguments.
5I would learn how he would answer me;
and understand what he would say to me.
6Would he prosecute me forcefully?
No, he would certainly pay attention to me.
7Then an upright man could reason with him,
and I would escape from my Judge forever.
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;
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;
when I consider this, I am afraid of him.
16God has made my heart faint;
the Almighty has terrified me.
17Yet I am not destroyed by the darkness,
by the thick darkness that covers my face.