Job 23-24

New Living Translation

² “My complaint today is still a bitter one,
    and I try hard not to groan aloud.
³ If only I knew where to find God,
    I would go to his court.
⁴ I would lay out my case
    and present my arguments.
⁵ Then I would listen to his reply
    and understand what he says to me.
⁶ Would he use his great power to argue with me?
    No, he would give me a fair hearing.
⁷ Honest people can reason with him,
    so I would be forever acquitted by my judge.
⁸ I go east, but he is not there.
    I go west, but I cannot find him.
⁹ I do not see him in the north, for he is hidden.
    I look to the south, but he is concealed.

¹⁰ “But he knows where I am going.
    And when he tests me, I will come out as pure as gold.
¹¹ For I have stayed on God’s paths;
    I have followed his ways and not turned aside.
¹² I have not departed from his commands,
    but have treasured his words more than daily food.
¹³ But once he has made his decision, who can change his mind?
    Whatever he wants to do, he does.
¹⁴ So he will do to me whatever he has planned.
    He controls my destiny.
¹⁵ No wonder I am so terrified in his presence.
    When I think of it, terror grips me.
¹⁶ God has made me sick at heart;
    the Almighty has terrified me.
¹⁷ Darkness is all around me;
    thick, impenetrable darkness is everywhere.

⁹ “The wicked snatch a widow’s child from her breast,
    taking the baby as security for a loan.
¹⁰ The poor must go about naked, without any clothing.
    They harvest food for others while they themselves are starving.
¹¹ They press out olive oil without being allowed to taste it,
    and they tread in the winepress as they suffer from thirst.
¹² The groans of the dying rise from the city,
    and the wounded cry for help,
    yet God ignores their moaning.

¹³ “Wicked people rebel against the light.
    They refuse to acknowledge its ways
    or stay in its paths.
¹⁴ The murderer rises in the early dawn
    to kill the poor and needy;
    at night he is a thief.
¹⁵ The adulterer waits for the twilight,
    saying, ‘No one will see me then.’
    He hides his face so no one will know him.
¹⁶ Thieves break into houses at night
    and sleep in the daytime.
    They are not acquainted with the light.
¹⁷ The black night is their morning.
    They ally themselves with the terrors of the darkness.

¹⁸ “But they disappear like foam down a river.
    Everything they own is cursed,
    and they are afraid to enter their own vineyards.
¹⁹ The grave^[a] consumes sinners
    just as drought and heat consume snow.
²⁰ Their own mothers will forget them.
    Maggots will find them sweet to eat.
No one will remember them.
    Wicked people are broken like a tree in the storm.
²¹ They cheat the woman who has no son to help her.
    They refuse to help the needy widow.

²² “God, in his power, drags away the rich.
    They may rise high, but they have no assurance of life.
²³ They may be allowed to live in security,
    but God is always watching them.
²⁴ And though they are great now,
    in a moment they will be gone like all others,
    cut off like heads of grain.
²⁵ Can anyone claim otherwise?
    Who can prove me wrong?”