Behold now, I have prepared my case; I know that I shall be justified.
You know that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of your hand.
I am as one mocked of his neighbor, who calls upon God, and he answers him: the just upright man is laughed to scorn.
Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears.
O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleads for his neighbor!
I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.
My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.
I am clean without transgression, I am innocent; neither is there iniquity in me.
For Job has said, I am righteous: and God has taken away my justice.
Return, I pray you, let it not be injustice; yea, return again, my righteousness is in it.
If I justify myself, my own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am blameless, it shall also prove me perverse.
Though I were blameless, yet would I not know my soul: I would despise my life.
Put me in remembrance: let us contend together: state your case, that you may be proved right.
For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you.