See now, I have prepared my case; I know that I will be vindicated.
though You know that I am not guilty, yet there is no one to deliver from Your hand?
“I have become a laughingstock to my friend, though I called on God and He answered— a righteous and blameless man is a laughingstock!
“Listen carefully to my words, and let my declaration be in your ears.
he contends with God on behalf of man as one pleads for a friend.
I would lay out my case before Him and fill my mouth with arguments.
I will maintain my righteousness, and not let it go; my conscience will not reproach me for any of my days.
So these three men stopped answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.
‘I am pure, without transgression; I am innocent, without iniquity.
“For Job says, ‘I am righteous, but God has deprived me of justice.
Relent, do not be unjust; reconsider, for my righteousness is in it.
Even if I were innocent, my mouth would condemn me. If I were guiltless, it will declare me perverse.
“I am guiltless. I have no concern for myself. I despise my life.
Remind me, when we argue our case together—state your case, so you may be proved right.
For our reason for boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world, and most especially toward you, with simplicity and godly sincerity—not by human wisdom but by the grace of God.