Job9

¹ Then Job answered and said:

² Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God?

³ If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times.

⁴ He is wise in heart and mighty in strength —who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?—

⁵ he who removes mountains, and they know it not, when he overturns them in his anger,

⁶ who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble;

⁷ who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars;

⁸ who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea;

⁹ who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;

¹⁰ who does great things beyond searching out, and marvelous things beyond number.

¹¹ Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not; he moves on, but I do not perceive him.

¹² Behold, he snatches away; who can turn him back? Who will say to him, What are you doing?

¹³ God will not turn back his anger; beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab.

¹⁴ How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him?

¹⁵ Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.

¹⁶ If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.

¹⁷ For he crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause;

¹⁸ he will not let me get my breath, but fills me with bitterness.

¹⁹ If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?

²⁰ Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.

²¹ I am blameless; I regard not myself; I loathe my life.

²² It is all one; therefore I say, He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.

²³ When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.

²⁴ The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges — if it is not he, who then is it?

²⁵ My days are swifter than a runner; they flee away; they see no good.

²⁶ They go by like skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping on the prey.

²⁷ If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and be of good cheer,

²⁸ I become afraid of all my suffering, for I know you will not hold me innocent.

²⁹ I shall be condemned; why then do I labor in vain?

³⁰ If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye,

³¹ yet you will plunge me into a pit, and my own clothes will abhor me.

³² For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together.

³³ There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both.

³⁴ Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me.

³⁵ Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself.