Job 13-14

Easy-to-Read Version

13 “I have seen all this before.
    I have already heard everything you say.
    I understand all these things.
² I know as much as you do.
    I am as smart as you are.
³ But I don’t want to argue with you.
    I want to speak to God All-Powerful.
    I want to argue with God about my troubles.
⁴ But you men try to cover up your ignorance with lies.
    You are like worthless doctors who cannot heal anyone.
⁵ I wish you would just be quiet.
    That would be the wisest thing you could do.

⁶ “Now, listen to my argument.
    Listen to what I have to say.
⁷ Will you speak lies for God?
    Do you really believe your lies are what God wants you to say?
⁸ Are you trying to defend God against me?
    You are not being fair.
    You are choosing God’s side simply because he is God.
⁹ If God checked you very closely,
    would he see that you are right?
Do you really think you can fool God
    the same as you fool people?
¹⁰ You know that God would criticize you
    if you chose someone’s side simply because they were important.
¹¹ God’s majesty frightens you.
    You are afraid of him.
¹² The wise sayings you quote are worthless.
    Your arguments are as weak as clay.

¹³ “Be quiet and let me talk!
    I accept whatever happens to me.
¹⁴ I will put myself in danger
    and take my life in my own hands.
¹⁵ I will continue to trust God even if he kills me.^[a]
    But I will defend myself to his face.
¹⁶ And if he lets me live, it will be because I had the confidence to speak.
    No guilty person would dare meet God face to face.
¹⁷ Listen carefully to what I say.
    Let me explain.
¹⁸ I am ready now to defend myself.
    I will carefully present my arguments.
    I know I will be shown to be right.
¹⁹ If anyone can prove I am wrong,
    I will shut up and wait to die.

²⁰ “God, just give me two things,
    and then I will not hide from you:
²¹ Stop punishing me,
    and don’t frighten me with your terrors.
²² Then call to me, and I will answer you.
    Or let me speak, and you answer me.
²³ How many sins have I committed?
    What wrongs have I done?
    Show me where I went wrong or how I sinned.
²⁴ God, why do you avoid me
    and treat me like your enemy?
²⁵ Are you trying to scare me?
    I am only a leaf blowing in the wind.
    You are attacking a piece of straw!
²⁶ You have a list of terrible charges against me.
    Are you making me suffer for the sins I did when I was young?
²⁷ You have put chains on my feet.
    You watch every step I take.
    You see every move I make.
²⁸ So I am becoming weaker and weaker,
    like a piece of wood rotting away,
    like a piece of cloth eaten by moths.

14 “We are all human beings.^[b]
    Our life is short and full of trouble.
² Our life is like a flower that grows quickly and then dies away.
    Our life is like a shadow that is here for a short time and then is gone.
³ God, do you need to keep an eye on something so small?
    Why bother to bring charges against me?

⁴ “No one can make something clean from something so dirty.
⁵ The length of our life has been decided.
    You alone know how long that is.
    You have set the limits for us and nothing can change them.
⁶ So stop watching us; leave us alone,
    and let us enjoy this hard life until we have put in our time.

⁷ “There is always hope for a tree.
    If it is cut down, it can grow again.
    It will keep sending out new branches.
⁸ Its roots might grow old in the ground
    and its stump die in the dirt,
⁹ but with water, it will grow again.
    It will grow branches like a new plant.
¹⁰ But when a man dies,
    he becomes weak and sick, and then he is gone!
¹¹ Like a lake that goes dry
    or a river that loses its source,
¹² so people lose their lives,
    never to live again.
The skies will all pass away
    before they rise from death.
The skies will all disappear before
    anyone wakes up from that sleep!

¹³ “I wish you would hide me in my grave.
    I wish you would hide me there, until your anger is gone.
    Then you could pick a time to remember me.
¹⁴ If a man dies, will he live again?
    If so, I would gladly suffer through this time waiting for my release.^[c]
15 God, you would call me,
    and I would answer you.
Then I, the one you made,
    would be important to you.
¹⁶ You would still watch every step I take,
    but you would not remember my sins.
¹⁷ It would be as if you had sealed my sins in a bag.
    It would be as if you had covered my guilt with plaster.

¹⁸ “Mountains fall and crumble away.
    Large rocks break loose and fall.
¹⁹ Water flowing over stones wears them down.
    Floods wash away the soil on the ground.
    In the same way, God, you destroy the hope people have.
²⁰ You defeat them completely
    and then they are gone.
You change the way they look
    and send them away forever to the place of death.
²¹ If their sons are honored, they will never know it.
    If their sons do wrong, they will never see it.
²² They only feel the pain in their bodies,
    and they alone cry for themselves.”