Jó 13

¹ Loe, mine eye hath seene all this: mine eare hath heard, and vnderstande it.

² I knowe also as much as you knowe: I am not inferiour vnto you.

³ Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desireFor although he knew that God was just, which was revealed in his ordinary working and another in his secret counsel, yet he uttered his affection to God, because he was not able to understand the reason he punished him.to reason with God.

⁴ But ye [are] forgers of lies, ye [are] allYou do not well apply your medicine to the disease.physicians of no value.

⁵ Oh, that you woulde holde your tongue, that it might be imputed to you for wisedome!

⁶ Nowe heare my disputation, and giue eare to the arguments of my lips.

⁷ Will ye speakHe condemns their zeal, who did not have knowledge, nor regarded they to comfort him, but always granted on God's justice, as though it was not evidently seen in Job, unless they had undertaken the probation of it.wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?

⁸ Will ye accept his person? or will ye contende for God?

⁹ Is it well that he shoulde seeke of you? will you make a lye for him, as one lyeth for a man?

¹⁰ He will surely reprooue you, if ye doe secretly accept any person.

¹¹ Shall not his excellencie make you afraid? and his feare fall vpon you?

¹² YourYour fame will come to nothing.remembrances [are] like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay.

¹³ Holde your tongues in my presence, that I may speake, and let come vpon what will.

¹⁴ Wherefore do IIs not this a revealed sign of my affliction and that I do not complain without cause, seeing that I am thus tormented as though I should tear my own flesh, and put my life in danger?take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand?

¹⁵ Loe, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him, and I will reprooue my wayes in his sight.

¹⁶ He also [shall be] my salvation: for anBy which he declares that he is not a hypocrite as they charged him.hypocrite shall not come before him.

¹⁷ Heare diligently my wordes, and marke my talke.

¹⁸ Behold now, I have ordered [my] cause; I know that I shall beThat is, cleared and not cut off for my sins, as you think.justified.

¹⁹ Who [is] he [that] will pleadTo prove that God punishes me for my sins.with me? for now, if I hold my tongue, I shallIf I do not defend my cause, every man will condemn me.give up the ghost.

²⁰ But doe not these two things vnto me: then will I not hide my selfe from thee.

²¹ He shows what these two things are.Withdraw thine hand far from me: and let not thy dread make me afraid.

²² Then call thou, and I will answere: or let me speake, and answere thou me.

²³ How many [are]His pangs move him to reason with God, not denying that he had sinned: but he desired to understand what his great sins were that he deserved such rigor, in which he sinned by demanding a reason from God why he punished him.mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.

²⁴ Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and takest me for thine enemie?

²⁵ Wilt thou breake a leafe driuen to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the drie stubble?

²⁶ For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possessYou punish me now for the sins that I committed in my youth.the iniquities of my youth.

²⁷ Thou puttest my feet also in theYou make me your prisoner, and so press me that I cannot stir hand or foot.stocks, and lookest narrowly unto all my paths; thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet.

²⁸ Such one consumeth like a rotten thing, and as a garment that is motheaten.