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Yahweh’s “justice” is praised, so presumably Job could bring his complaint and the protestation of his innocence before him as the just judge. But he doubts this possibility. “How can a man be just before God?”2 “If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice. ”3 “If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?”4 He “multiplies my wounds without cause. ”5 “He destroys both the blameless and the wicked. ”6 “If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent. ”7 “I know, ” Job says to Yahweh, “thou wilt not hold me innocent. I shall be condemned. ”8 “If I wash myself … never so clean, yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch. “9 “For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment. ”10 Job wants to explain his point of view to Yahweh, to state his complaint, and tells him: “Thou knowest that I am not guilty, and there is none to deliver out of thy hand. ”11 “I desire to argue my case with God. ”12 “I will defend my ways to his face, ”13 “I know that I shall be vindicated. ”14 Yahweh should summon him and render him an account or at least allow him to plead his cause. Properly estimating the disproportion between man and God, he asks: “Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?”15 God has put him in the wrong, but there is no justice. 16 He has “taken away my right. ”17 “Till I die I will not put away my integrity from me. I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go. ”18 His friend Elihu the Buzite does not believe the injustice of Yahweh: “Of a truth, God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice. ”19 Illogically enough, he bases his opinion on God’s power: “Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art wicked? and to princes, Y e are ungodly?”20 One must “respect the persons of princes and esteem the high more than the low. ”21 But Job is not shaken in his faith, and had already uttered an important truth when he said: “Behold, my witness is in heaven, and he that vouches for me is on high … my eye pours out tears to God, that he would maintain the right of a man with God, like that of a man with his neighbour. ”22 And later: “For I know that my Vindicator lives, and at last he will stand upon the earth. ”23