1   Then Job answered:

2   My thoughts today are resentful,
for God's ^note hand is heavy on me in my trouble.
3   If only I knew how to find him,
how to enter his court,
4   I would state my case before him
and set out my arguments in full;
5   then I should learn what answer he would give
and find out what he had to say.
6   Would he exert his great power to browbeat me?
No; God himself would never bring a charge against me.
7   There the upright are vindicated before him,
and I shall win from my judge an absolute discharge.
8   If I go forward, ^note he is not there;
if backward, ^note I cannot find him;
9   when I turn ^note left, ^note I do not descry him;
I face ^note right, ^note but I see him not.
10   But he knows me in action or at rest; ^note
when he tests me, I prove to be gold.
11   My feet have kept to the path he has set me,
I have followed his way and not turned from it.
12   I do not ignore the commands that come from his lips,
I have stored in my heart ^note what he says.
13   He decides, ^note and who can turn him from his purpose?
He does what his own heart desires.
14   What he determines, ^note that he carries out;
his mind is full of plans like these.
15   Therefore I am fearful of meeting him;
when I think about him, ^note I am afraid;
16   it is God who makes me faint-hearted
and the Almighty who fills me with fear,

Third cycle of speeches
17   yet I am not reduced to silence by the darkness
nor ^note by the mystery which hides him.

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