Job 20

1 Why do I tear my flesh with my teeth, and carry my soul in my hands? 2 Although he should kill me, I will trust in him: but yet I will reprove my ways in his sight. 3 And he shall be my saviour: for no hypocrite shall come before his presence. 4 Hear ye my speech, and receive with your ears hidden truths. 5 If I shall be judged, I know that I shall be found just. 6 Who is he that will plead against me? let him come: why am I consumed holding my peace? 7 Two things only do not to me, and then from thy face I shall not be hid: 8 Withdraw thy hand far from me, and let not thy dread terrify me. 9 Call me, and I will answer thee: or else I will speak, and do thou answer me. 10 How many are my iniquities and sins? make me know my crimes and offenses. 11 Why hidest thou thy face, and thinkest me thy enemy? 12 Against a leaf, that is carried away with the wind, thou shewest thy power, and thou pursuest a dry straw. 13 For thou writest bitter things against me, and wilt consume me for the sins of my youth. 14 Thou hast put my feet in the stocks, and hast observed all my paths, and hast considered the steps of my feet: 15 Who am to be consumed as rottenness, and as a garment that is motheaten. 17 Man born of a woman, living for a short time, is filled with many miseries. 18 Who cometh forth like a flower, and is destroyed, and fleeth as a shadow, and never continueth in the same state. 19 And dost thou think it meet to open thy eyes upon such an one, and to bring him into judgment with thee? 20 Who can make him clean that is conceived of unclean seed? is it not thou who only art? 21 The days of man are short, and the number of his months is with thee: thou hast appointed his bounds which cannot be passed. 22 Depart a little from him, that he may rest until his wished for day come, as that of the hireling. 23 A tree hath hope: if it be cut, it growth green again, and the boughs thereof sprout. 24 If its roots be old in the earth, and its stock be dead in the dust: 25 At the scent of water, it shall spring, and bring forth leaves, as when it was first planted. 26 But man when he shall be dead, and stripped and consumed, I pray you where is he? 27 As if the waters should depart out of the sea, and an emptied river should be dried up; 28 So man when he is fallen asleep shall not rise again; till the heavens be broken, he shall not awake, nor rise up out of his sleep. 29 Who will grant me this, that thou mayst protect me in hell, and hide me till thy wrath pass, and appoint me a time when thou wilt remember me?