---
title: Job 23
slug: kjv/job-23
createdAt: 2024-08-21T01:31:04.304Z
---

**1 **Then Job answered and said,

**2 **Even to day *is* my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.

**3 **Oh that I knew where I might find him! *that* I might come *even* to his seat!

**4 **I would order *my* cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.

**5 **I would know the words *which* he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me.

**6 **Will he plead against me with *his* great power? No; but he would put *strength* in me.

**7 **There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge.

**8 **Behold, I go forward, but he *is* not *there*; and backward, but I cannot perceive him:

**9 **On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold *him*: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see *him*:

**10 **But he knoweth the way that I take: *when* he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

**11 **My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.

**12 **Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary *food*.

**13 **But he *is* in one *mind*, and who can turn him? and *what* his soul desireth, even *that* he doeth.

**14 **For he performeth *the thing that is* appointed for me: and many such *things are* with him.

**15 **Therefore am I troubled at his presence: when I consider, I am afraid of him.

**16 **For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me:

**17 **Because I was not cut off before the darkness, *neither* hath he covered the darkness from my face.