Job 9

1Then Job answered:

2“Truly, I know that this is so. But how can a mortal be in the right before God?

3If someone wanted to argue with him, he could not answer him one time in a thousand.

4He is wise in heart and mighty in strength—who has defied him and come out unharmed?

5He moves mountains, and they do not know it when he overturns them in his anger.

6He shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble.

7He speaks to the sun, and it does not rise; he seals up the stars.

8He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.

9He made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.

10He does great things beyond searching out, wonders that cannot be counted.

11When he passes by me, I do not see him; when he moves on, I do not perceive him.

12When he snatches something away, who can stop him? Who can say to him, ‘What are you doing?’

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

14How then can I answer him, or choose my words to argue with him?

15Even if I were in the right, I could not answer; I could only plead for mercy with my judge.

16If I called and he answered me, I do not believe he would listen to my voice.

17For he crushes me with a storm and multiplies my wounds for no reason.

18He does not let me catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness.

19If it is a matter of strength, look, he is mighty! If it is a matter of justice—‘Who can summon me?’

20Even if I were in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, it would prove me crooked.

21I am blameless; I do not care about myself; I despise my life.

22It is all the same; that is why I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’

23When a plague brings sudden death, he mocks the despair of the innocent.

24The earth is handed over to the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges. If it is not he, then who is it?

25My days are swifter than a runner; they flee away without seeing any good.

26They glide past like boats of reed, like an eagle swooping down on its prey.

27If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint; I will change my expression and be cheerful,’

28I still dread all my sufferings, for I know you will not hold me innocent.

29I will be found guilty anyway, so why should I struggle in vain?

30If I washed myself with snow water and cleansed my hands with lye,

31even then you would plunge me into a pit, and my own clothes would detest me.

32For he is not a man like me, that I could answer him, that we could go to court together.

33There is no mediator between us who could lay his hand on us both.

34Let him take his rod away from me, and let the terror of him not frighten me.

35Then I would speak without fearing him, but it is not so with me.