Job 23

Good News Translation

23 ^1-2 I still rebel and complain against God;
    I cannot keep from groaning.
³ How I wish I knew where to find him,
    and knew how to go where he is.
⁴ I would state my case before him
    and present all the arguments in my favor.
⁵ I want to know what he would say
    and how he would answer me.
⁶ Would God use all his strength against me?
    No, he would listen as I spoke.
⁷ I am honest; I could reason with God;
    he would declare me innocent^[a] once and for all.

⁸ I have searched in the East, but God is not there;
    I have not found him when I searched in the West.
⁹ God has been at work in the North and the South,
    but still I have not seen him.
¹⁰ Yet God knows every step I take;
    if he tests me, he will find me pure.
¹¹ I follow faithfully the road he chooses,
    and never wander to either side.
¹² I always do what God commands;
    I follow his will, not my own desires.

¹³ He never changes. No one can oppose him
    or stop him from doing what he wants to do.
¹⁴ He will fulfill what he has planned for me;
    that plan is just one of the many he has;
¹⁵     I tremble with fear before him.
^16-17 Almighty God has destroyed my courage.
It is God, not the dark, that makes me afraid—
    even though the darkness has made me blind.