The Anselm Project

1Then Job answered and said, 2Even today my complaint is rebellion; my hand lies heavy upon my sighing. 3Who will grant that I might know him and find him, that I might come even to his dwelling? 4I would set my case in order before him and fill my mouth with arguments. 5I would learn the words with which he would answer me and understand what he would say to me. 6Will he contend with me by great strength? Surely he will not impose it upon me. 7There an upright person is rebuked with him, and I would escape forever from my judge. 8Behold, if I go forward he is not there, or backward and I do not perceive him. 9When he works on the left I cannot grasp him; when he turns to the right I cannot see him. 10For he knows the way with me; when he has tested me I shall come forth as gold. 11My foot has held fast to his steps; I have kept his way and have not turned aside. 12I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion. 13But he is one, and who can turn him back? What his soul desires, that he does. 14For he completes what he has decreed for me, and many such things are with him. 15Therefore I am terrified before him; when I consider it I am in dread of him. 16God has made my heart faint, and the Almighty has terrified me. 17Yet I am not destroyed before the darkness, nor has the gloom covered my face.

Chapter 24

1Why are times not kept hidden from the Almighty, so that those who know him do not see his days? 2They move boundary stones; they seize flocks and pasture them. 3They drive away the donkey of the fatherless; they take the widow's ox as a pledge. 4They thrust the needy off the road; the poor of the land hide themselves together. 5Behold, the wild donkeys in the desert go out to their labor, seeking food in the steppe for their young. 6They reap fodder in the field; they glean the vineyard of the wicked. 7They lie naked without clothing and have no covering against the cold. 8They are drenched by mountain rains and cling to the rock for lack of shelter. 9They snatch the orphan from the breast and exact pledges from the afflicted. 10They go about naked, without clothing, and hungry they carry the sheaves. 11Between the rows they press out oil; they tread the winepresses yet suffer thirst. 12From the city the dying groan, and the soul of the wounded cries out, yet God pays no attention to their wrong. 13These are among those who rebel against the light; they do not know its ways nor abide in its paths. 14The murderer rises with the light to kill the poor and needy, and becomes like a thief in the night. 15The eye of the adulterer watches for twilight, thinking, No eye will see me, and he sets a disguise upon his face. 16In the dark they break into houses; by day they shut themselves in and do not know the light. 17For morning is the same as deep darkness to them, for they are familiar with the terrors of deep darkness. 18Swiftly they pass over the surface of the waters; their portion is cursed in the land so that no one turns toward their vineyards. 19Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters; Sheol claims those who have sinned. 20The womb forgets them; the worm finds them sweet; they are remembered no more and are broken off like a tree. 21He preys on the barren who never bore and shows no kindness to the widow. 22He drags away the mighty by his power; when he rises no one is sure of life. 23He grants them security and they rely on it, yet his eyes are on their ways. 24They are exalted for a moment and then are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like heads of grain that wither. 25If it is not so, who can prove me a liar and show that my words have no weight?

Job Seeks God and Laments Injustice