[23:1] Then Job answered and said:
[23:2] “Today also my complaint is bitter; my hand is heavy on account of my groaning.
[23:3] Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat!
[23:4] I would lay my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments.
[23:5] I would know what he would answer me and understand what he would say to me.
[23:6] Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No; he would pay attention to me.
[23:7] There an upright man could argue with him, and I would be acquitted forever by my judge.
[23:8] “Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him;
[23:9] on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him; he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him.
[23:10] But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.
[23:11] My foot has held fast to his steps; I have kept his way and have not turned aside.
[23:12] I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.
[23:13] But he is unchangeable, and who can turn him back? What he desires, that he does.
[23:14] For he will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind.
[23:15] Therefore I am terrified at his presence; when I consider, I am in dread of him.
[23:16] God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me;
[23:17] yet I am not silenced because of the darkness, nor because thick darkness covers my face.
[24:1] “Why are not times of judgment kept by the Almighty, and why do those who know him never see his days?
[24:2] Some move landmarks; they seize flocks and pasture them.
[24:3] They drive away the donkey of the fatherless; they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
[24:4] They thrust the poor off the road; the poor of the earth all hide themselves.
[24:5] Behold, like wild donkeys in the desert the poor go out to their toil, seeking game; the wasteland yields food for their children.
[24:6] They gather their fodder in the field, and they glean the vineyard of the wicked man.
[24:7] They lie all night naked, without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.
[24:8] They are wet with the rain of the mountains and cling to the rock for lack of shelter.
[24:9] (There are those who snatch the fatherless child from the breast, and they take a pledge against the poor.)
[24:10] They go about naked, without clothing; hungry, they carry the sheaves;
[24:11] among the olive rows of the wicked they make oil; they tread the winepresses, but suffer thirst.
[24:12] From out of the city the dying groan, and the soul of the wounded cries for help; yet God charges no one with wrong.
[24:13] “There are those who rebel against the light, who are not acquainted with its ways, and do not stay in its paths.
[24:14] The murderer rises before it is light, that he may kill the poor and needy, and in the night he is like a thief.
[24:15] The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye will see me’; and he veils his face.
[24:16] In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves up; they do not know the light.
[24:17] For deep darkness is morning to all of them; for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.
[24:18] “You say, ‘Swift are they on the face of the waters; their portion is cursed in the land; no treader turns toward their vineyards.
[24:19] Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters; so does Sheol those who have sinned.
[24:20] The womb forgets them; the worm finds them sweet; they are no longer remembered, so wickedness is broken like a tree.’
[24:21] “They wrong the barren, childless woman, and do no good to the widow.
[24:22] Yet God prolongs the life of the mighty by his power; they rise up when they despair of life.
[24:23] He gives them security, and they are supported, and his eyes are upon their ways.
[24:24] They are exalted a little while, and then are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like all others; they are cut off like the heads of grain.
[24:25] If it is not so, who will prove me a liar and show that there is nothing in what I say?”