Study Desk

I will say to God, ‘You should not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me.

But, O that God might speak, and that he would open his lips to you,

and that he would tell you the secrets of wisdom, for insight has many sides. And know that God on your behalf has forgotten some of your guilt.

"Can you find out the essence of God, or can you find out the ultimate limits of Shaddai?

I am a laughingstock to my friends: ‘He calls on God, and he answers him.' A righteous, blameless man is a laughingstock.

The tents of the destroyers are at peace, and there is security for those who provoke God, for those whom God brings into his hand.

But I would speak to Shaddai, and I desire to argue with God.

"Will you speak falsely for God? And will you speak deceitfully for him?

"What is worse, you yourself are doing away with fear, and you are lessening meditation before God.

"Are the consolations of God too small for you, a word spoken gently with you?

that you turn your spirit against God, and you let such words go out of your mouth?

Because he stretched out his hand against God, and he was arrogant to Shaddai;

God delivers me to an evil one, and he casts me into the hands of the wicked.

My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God,

and it argues for a mortal with God, and as a human for his friend.

Surely these are the dwellings of the godless, and this is the dwelling place of him who knows not God."

know then that God has wronged me and has surrounded me with his net.

Why do you pursue me like God? And are not satisfied with my flesh?

And after my skin has been thus destroyed, but from my flesh I will see God,

He swallows riches, but he vomits them up; God drives them out from his stomach.