1Then Iyov answered:
2"Today too my complaint is bitter; my hand is weighed down because of my groaning.
3I wish I knew where I could find him; then I would go to where he is.
4I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments
5I would know his answering words and grasp what he would tell me.
6Would he browbeat me with his great power? No, he would pay attention to me.
7There an upright person could reason with him; thus I might be forever acquitted by my judge.
8"If I head east, he isn't there; if I head west, I don't detect him,
9if I turn north, I don't spot him; in the south he is veiled, and I still don't see him.
10Yet he knows the way I take; when he has tested me, I will come out like gold.
11My feet have stayed in his footsteps; I keep to his way without turning aside.
12I don't withdraw from his lips' command; I treasure his words more than my daily food.
13"But he has no equal, so who can change him? What he desires, he does.
14He will accomplish what is decreed for me, and he has many plans like this
15This is why I am terrified of him; the more I think about it, the more afraid I am -
16God has undermined my courage; Shaddai frightens me.
17Yet I am not cut off by the darkness; he has protected me from the deepest gloom.