Job 13-14

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

13 “Look, my eye has seen all this;
    my ear has heard and understood it.
² What you know, I also know;
    I am not inferior to you.
³ But I would speak to the Almighty,^[a]
    and I desire to argue my case with God.^(A)
4 As for you, you whitewash with lies;
    all of you are worthless physicians.^(B)
5 If you would only keep silent,
    that would be your wisdom!^(C)
6 Hear now my reasoning,
    and listen to the pleadings of my lips.
⁷ Will you speak falsely for God
    and speak deceitfully for him?
⁸ Will you show partiality toward him;
    will you plead the case for God?
⁹ Will it be well with you when he searches you out?
    Or can you deceive him as one person deceives another?^(D)
10 He will surely rebuke you
    if in secret you show partiality.
¹¹ Will not his majesty terrify you
    and the dread of him fall upon you?
¹² Your maxims are proverbs of ashes;
    your defenses are defenses of clay.^(E)

¹³ “Let me have silence, and I will speak,
    and let come on me what may.
¹⁴ I will take my flesh in my teeth
    and put my life in my hand.^[b](F)
15 See, he will kill me; I have no hope;^[c]
    but I will defend my ways to his face.^(G)
16 This will be my salvation,
    that the godless shall not come before him.^(H)
17 Listen carefully to my words,
    and let my declaration be in your ears.^(I)
18 I have indeed prepared my case;
    I know that I shall be vindicated.
¹⁹ Who is there who will contend with me?
    For then I would be silent and die.^(J)

14 “A mortal, born of woman, few of days and full of trouble,^(R)
2     comes up like a flower and withers,
    flees like a shadow and does not last.^(S)
3 Do you fix your eyes on such a one?
    Do you bring me into judgment with you?^(T)
4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
    No one can.^(U)
5 Since their days are determined,
    and the number of their months is known to you,
    and you have appointed the bounds that they cannot pass,^(V)
6 look away from them and desist,^[e]
    that they may enjoy, like laborers, their days.^(W)

⁷ “For there is hope for a tree,
    if it is cut down, that it will sprout again
    and that its shoots will not cease.
⁸ Though its root grows old in the earth
    and its stump dies in the ground,
⁹ yet at the scent of water it will bud
    and put forth branches like a young plant.^(X)
10 But mortals die and are laid low;
    humans expire, and where are they?^(Y)
11 As waters fail from a lake
    and a river wastes away and dries up,^(Z)
12 so mortals lie down and do not rise again;
    until the heavens are no more, they will not awake
    or be roused out of their sleep.^(AA)
13 O that you would hide me in Sheol,
    that you would conceal me until your wrath is past,
    that you would appoint me a set time and remember me!^(AB)
14 If mortals die, will they live again?
    All the days of my service I would wait
    until my release should come.^(AC)
15 You would call, and I would answer you;
    you would long for the work of your hands.
¹⁶ For then you would not^[f] number my steps;
    you would not keep watch over my sin;^(AD)
17 my transgression would be sealed up in a bag,
    and you would cover over my iniquity.^(AE)

¹⁸ “But the mountain falls and crumbles away,
    and the rock is removed from its place;^(AF)
19 the waters wear away the stones;
    the torrents wash away the soil of the earth;
    so you destroy the hope of mortals.
²⁰ You prevail forever against them, and they pass away;
    you change their countenance and send them away.^(AG)
21 Their children come to honor, and they do not know it;
    they are brought low, and it goes unnoticed.^(AH)
22 They feel only the pain of their own bodies
    and mourn only for themselves.”