Study Desk

Since I am already found guilty, why should I labor in vain?

Then I would speak without fear of Him. But as it is, I am on my own.

though You know that I am not guilty, and there is no deliverance from Your hand?

If I am guilty, woe to me! And even if I am righteous, I cannot lift my head. I am full of shame and aware of my affliction.

You have said, 'My doctrine is sound, and I am pure in Your sight.'

But I also have a mind; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these?

I am a laughingstock to my friends, though I called on God, and He answered. The righteous and upright man is a laughingstock.

What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you.

He tears me down on every side until I am gone; He uproots my hope like a tree.

My guests and maidservants count me as a stranger; I am a foreigner in their sight.

My breath is repulsive to my wife, and I am loathsome to my own family.

Therefore I am terrified in His presence; when I consider this, I fear Him.

Yet I am not silenced by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face.

But now they mock me, men younger than I am, whose fathers I would have refused to entrust with my sheep dogs.

I am churning within and cannot rest; days of affliction confront me.

So Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite declared: "I am young in years, while you are old; that is why I was timid and afraid to tell you what I know.

For I am full of words, and my spirit within me compels me.

I am just like you before God; I was also formed from clay.

'I am pure, without transgression; I am clean, with no iniquity in me.

For Job has declared, 'I am righteous, yet God has deprived me of justice.