Job 9

¹ Then Job answered and said:

² I know well that it is so; but how can a man be justified before God?

³ Should one wish to contend with him, he could not answer him once in a thousand times.

⁴ God is wise in heart and mighty in strength; who has withstood him and remained unscathed?

⁵ He removes the mountains before they know it; he overturns them in his anger.

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

⁷ He commands the sun, and it rises not; he seals up the stars.

⁸ He alone stretches out the heavens and treads upon the crests of the sea.

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

¹⁰ He does great things past finding out, marvelous things beyond reckoning.

¹¹ Should he come near me, I see him not; should he pass by, I am not aware of him;

¹² Should he seize me forcibly, who can say him nay? Who can say to him, "What are you doing?"

¹³ He is God and he does not relent; the helpers of Rahab bow beneath him.

¹⁴ How much less shall I give him any answer, or choose out arguments against him!

¹⁵ Even though I were right, I could not answer him, but should rather beg for what was due me.

¹⁶ If I appealed to him and he answered my call, I could not believe that he would hearken to my words;

¹⁷ With a tempest he might overwhelm me, and multiply my wounds without cause;

¹⁸ He need not suffer me to draw breath, but might fill me with bitter griefs.

¹⁹ If it be a question of strength, he is mighty; and if of judgment, who will call him to account?

²⁰ Though I were right, my own mouth might condemn me; were I innocent, he might put me in the wrong.

²¹ Though I am innocent, I myself cannot know it; I despise my life.

²² It is all one! therefore I say: Both the innocent and the wicked he destroys.

²³ When the scourge slays suddenly, he laughs at the despair of the innocent.

²⁴ The earth is given into the hands 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 happiness;

²⁶ They shoot by like skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping upon its prey.

²⁷ If I say: I will forget my complaining, I will lay aside my sadness and be of good cheer,

²⁸ Then I am in dread of all my pains; I know that you will not hold me innocent.

²⁹ If I must be accounted guilty, why then should I strive in vain?

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

³¹ Yet you would plunge me in the ditch, so that my garments would abhor me.

³² For he is not a man like myself, that I should answer him, that we should come together in judgment.

³³ Would that there were an arbiter between us, who could lay his hand upon us both

³⁴ and withdraw his rod from me. Would that his terrors did not frighten me;

³⁵ that I might speak without being afraid of him. Since this is not the case with me,