Job 23:4

¹⁸See now, I have set my cause in order. I know that I am righteous.

¹⁸My God, turn your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by your name; for we do not present our petitions before you for our righteousness, but for your great mercies’ sake. ¹⁹Lord, hear. Lord, forgive. Lord, listen and do. Don’t defer, for your own sake, my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.”

¹²Why should the Egyptians talk, saying, ‘He brought them out for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath, and turn away from this evil against your people. ¹³Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring^[+] as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’”

²⁵May it be far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?”

²⁶The LORD said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place for their sake.” ²⁷Abraham answered, “See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord, although I am dust and ashes. ²⁸What if there will lack five of the fifty righteous? Will you destroy all the city for lack of five?” He said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”

²⁹He spoke to him yet again, and said, “What if there are forty found there?” He said, “I will not do it for the forty’s sake.”

³⁰He said, “Oh don’t let the Lord be angry, and I will speak. What if there are thirty found there?” He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

³¹He said, “See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord. What if there are twenty found there?” He said, “I will not destroy it for the twenty’s sake.”

³²He said, “Oh don’t let the Lord be angry, and I will speak just once more. What if ten are found there?” He said, “I will not destroy it for the ten’s sake.”

¹⁹Teach us what we will tell him, for we can’t make our case by reason of darkness.

¹¹For your name’s sake, LORD, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.

¹³Moses said to the LORD, “Then the Egyptians will hear it; for you brought up this people in your might from among them. ¹⁴They will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you LORD are among this people; for you LORD are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵Now if you killed this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of you will speak, saying, ¹⁶‘Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness.’ ¹⁷Now please let the power of the Lord^[+] be great, according as you have spoken, saying, ¹⁸‘The LORD is slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation.’ ¹⁹Please pardon the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your loving kindness, and just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”

²⁶Put me in remembrance. Let us plead together. Declare your case, that you may be justified.

¹Vindicate me, God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me from deceitful and wicked men.

¹²You said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which can’t be counted because there are so many.’”