K7 A 23:1-10. God's inscrutability.
B 23:11,12. Job's integrity.
A 23:13-14:1. God's inscrutability.
B 24:2-25. Man's iniquity.
A j 1-5. Job's wish for trial.
k 6,7. His confidence of the issue.
j 8,9. Job's search for trial.
k His confidence of the issue.
1656 B.C.
Job 23)
1 Then Job replied [a third time] and said,
2 "Even today is my complaining bitter: my hand (put for the calamity occasioned by it. Cp. 13:21; 19:21) is heavier than my groaning.
3 Oh that I knew where I might find Him! that I might come even to His seat!
4 I would order my cause before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would know the words which He would answer me, and understand what He would say to me.
6 Will He plead against me with His great power? No; but He would put strength in me.
7 There the righteous might dispute with Him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge.
8 Behold, I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him:
9 On the left hand, where He does work, but I cannot behold Him: He hides Himself on the right hand, that I cannot see Him:
10 But He knows the way that I take (or choose): when He has (or, if He would) tried me, I should come forth as gold.
11 My foot has held His steps, His way have I kept, and not declined.
12 Neither have I gone back from the commandment of His lips; I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my appointed portion (Heb. = my own law: i.e. ordinary allowance; "law" put for what is allowed by it. Cp. Gen. 47:22. Prov. 30:8).
13 But He is in one mind, and who can turn Him? and what Himself desires, even that He does.
14 For He performs the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with Him.
15 Therefore am I troubled at His presence: when I consider, I am afraid of Him. (See Deut. 28:66.)
16 For GOD (El) makes my heart soft, and The Almighty (Shaddai) troubles me:
17 Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither has He covered the darkness from my face.