9
1 Then Job answered,
2 “Truly
I know that
it is so,
but how can
man be just
with God?
3 If he
is pleased to
contend with him,
he can’t answer
him one time in
a thousand.
4 God
is wise in
heart, and mighty
in strength.
Who has hardened
himself against
him and prospered?
5 He
removes the
mountains, and
they don’t know it,
when he overturns
them in his anger.
6 He shakes
the earth out
of its place.
Its pillars tremble.
7 He commands
the sun and
it doesn’t rise,
and seals up
the stars.
8 He alone
stretches out the
heavens,
and treads on
the waves of
the sea.
9 He
makes the Bear,
Orion, and the
Pleiades,
and the rooms
of the south.
10 He
does great
things past finding out;
yes, marvelous things
without number.
11 Behold,
he goes by
me, and I don’t
see him.
He passes on also,
but I don’t
perceive him.
12 Behold,
he snatches away.
Who can hinder
him?
Who will ask him,
‘What are you
doing?’
13 “God
will not withdraw
his anger.
The helpers of
Rahab stoop under
him.
14 How
much less will
I answer him,
and choose my
words to argue
with him?
15 Though I
were righteous,
yet I wouldn’t
answer him.
I would make
supplication to my
judge.
16 If
I had called,
and he had
answered me,
yet I wouldn’t believe
that he listened
to my voice.
17 For
he breaks me with
a storm,
and multiplies my
wounds without
cause.
18 He
will not allow
me to catch my
breath,
but fills me with
bitterness.
19 If
it is a matter
of strength,
behold, he is
mighty!
If of justice, ‘Who,’ says he, ‘will
summon me?’
20 Though I am
righteous, my own
mouth will condemn
me.
Though I am blameless, it
will prove me
perverse.
21 I am
blameless.
I don’t respect
myself.
I despise my
life.
22 “It
is all the
same.
Therefore I say
he destroys the
blameless and the
wicked.
23 If the
scourge kills
suddenly,
he will mock
at the trial
of the innocent.
24 The earth
is given into
the hand of
the wicked.
He covers the
faces of its
judges.
If not he,
then who is
it?
25 “Now
my days are
swifter than a
runner.
They flee away.
They see no
good.
26 They
have passed away
as the swift ships,
as the eagle
that swoops on
the prey.
27 If I say,
‘I will forget
my complaint,
I will put off
my sad face, and
cheer up,’
28 I am
afraid of all
my sorrows.
I know that
you will not hold
me innocent.
29 I
will 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
in the ditch.
My own clothes will
abhor me.
32 For
he is not
a man, as
I am, that I
should answer him,
that we should
come together in
judgment.
33 There
is no umpire
between us,
that might lay
his hand on
us both.
34 Let him
take his rod
away from me.
Let his terror not make me
afraid;
35 then
I would speak,
and not fear
him,
for I am not
so in myself.