Job says,\par ‘I, Job, am innocent.\par And God is not fair to me.\par
You know I am innocent,\par but no one can save me\par from your power!\par
Job, you say to God,\par ‘My arguments are right,\par and you can see I am pure.’\par
I am ready now to defend myself.\par I will carefully present my arguments.\par I know I will be shown to be right.\par
I was never cruel to anyone\par \{but these bad things happened to me\}.\par My prayers are right and pure.\par
I shout, ‘He hurt me!’\par But I get no answer.\par Even if I call loudly for help,\par no person hears my cry for fairness.\par
“Truly, God lives.\par And just as truly as God lives,\par He has truly been unfair with me.\par God All-Powerful made my life bitter.\par
Right living was my clothing.\par Fairness was like my robe and turban. {\cf2\super [61]} \par
Then Job’s three friends gave up trying to answer Job. They gave up because Job was so sure that he himself was truly innocent.
You said:\par ‘I am pure.\par I am innocent\par I did nothing wrong.\par I am not guilty!\par
So, let us test these arguments\par and decide for ourselves what is right.\par Together we will learn what is good.\par
So now, change your mind.\par Don’t be unfair, think again.\par I have done nothing wrong.\par
God is always fair.\par God All-Powerful never changes\par the things that are right.\par
God would just send storms to crush me.\par He would just give me more wounds\par for no reason.\par
People of Jacob, this is true!\par Israel, you should believe this!\par So why do you say:\par “The Lord can’t see the way I live.\par God will not find me and punish me.”\par