Job 9

¹Then Job answered and said :

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

²⁴The 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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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