Job 9
1 Then Job replied,
Then Iob answered, and sayd,
2 “Yes, I certainly know that [much of] what you said is true. But (how can anyone say to God, ‘I (am innocent/have not done what is wrong) and prove it?’/no one can say to God ‘I (am innocent/have not done what is wrong) and prove it.’) [RHQ]
I knowe verily that it is so: for howe should man compared vnto God, be iustified?
3 If someone wanted to argue with God [about that], God could ask him 1,000 questions, and that person would not be able to answer any of them!
If I would dispute with him, hee could not answere him one thing of a thousand.
4 God is very wise [IDM] and very powerful; no one who has tried to challenge God has been able to win.
He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath bene fierce against him and hath prospered?
5 He even moves mountains, without them (OR, anyone) knowing about it. When he is angry, he turns them upside down.
He remoueth the mountaines, and they feele not when he ouerthroweth them in his wrath.
6 He sends earthquakes that shake the ground; he causes the pillars that support the earth to tremble.
Hee remooueth the earth out of her place, that the pillars thereof doe shake.
7 [Some days] he speaks to the sun, and it does not rise, and [some nights] he prevents the stars from shining.
He commandeth the sunne, and it riseth not: hee closeth vp the starres, as vnder a signet.
8 He alone (stretched out/put in place) the sky; he alone puts his feet on the waves (OR, on the huge sea monster).
Hee himselfe alone spreadeth out the heauens, and walketh vpon the height of the sea.
9 He put in their places [the clusters/groups of stars that are called] The Dipper/Bear, Orion, the Pleiades, and the stars in the southern sky.
He maketh the starres Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the climates of the South.
10 Only he does great things that we cannot understand; he does more marvelous things than we are able to count.
He doeth great things, and vnsearcheable: yea, marueilous things without nomber.
11 He passes by where I am, but I do not see him; he moves further on, but I do not see him go.
Lo, when he goeth by me, I see him not: and when he passeth by, I perceiue him not.
12 If he [wants to] snatch something away, no one [RHQ] can hinder him; no one dares to ask him, ‘Why are you doing that?’ [RHQ]
Behold, when he taketh a pray, who can make him to restore it? who shall say vnto him, What doest thou?
13 God will not very easily stop being angry; he defeated [MTY] those who [tried to] help Rahab, [the great sea monster].
God will not withdrawe his anger, and the most mightie helpes doe stoupe vnder him.
14 “So, [if God took me to court], what could I say [MTY] to answer him?
Howe much lesse shall I answere him? or howe should I finde out my words with him?
15 Even though I (would be innocent/would not have done what is wrong), I would not be able to answer him. All I could do would be to request God, my judge/accuser, to act mercifully toward me.
For though I were iust, yet could I not answere, but I would make supplication to my Iudge.
16 If I summoned him to [come to the courtroom] and he said that he would come, I would not believe that he would pay attention to what I would say.
If I cry, and he answere me, yet woulde I not beleeue, that he heard my voyce.
17 He sends storms to batter me, and he bruises me many times (without any reason to do that/even though I am innocent).
For he destroyeth mee with a tempest, and woundeth me without cause.
18 [It is as though] he will not let me get/catch my breath, because he causes me to suffer all the time.
He wil not suffer me to take my breath, but filleth me with bitternesse.
19 If I would try to (wrestle with/fight against) him, [there is no way that I could defeat him, ] [because] he is stronger than I am. If I would request him to appear in court, there is no one who could [RHQ] force him to go there.
If we speake of strength, behold, he is strog: if we speake of iudgement, who shall bring me in to pleade?
20 Even though I was innocent, what I would say would cause him to say that I must be punished [MTY]; even though I had not done anything wrong, he would prove that I am guilty.
If I woulde iustifie my selfe, mine owne mouth shall condemne mee: if I would be perfite, he shall iudge me wicked.
21 “I have not done what is wrong, but that is not important. I despise continuing to remain alive.
Though I were perfite, yet I knowe not my soule: therefore abhorre I my life.
22 But it doesn’t matter, because God will get rid of [all of us, ] both those who are innocent and those who are wicked.
This is one point: therefore I said, Hee destroyeth the perfite and the wicked.
23 When people experience disaster and it causes them to suddenly die, God laughs at it, even if they are innocent.
If the scourge should suddenly slay, should God laugh at the punishment of the innocent?
24 God has allowed wicked people to control [what happens in] the world. [It is as though] he has caused judges to be blindfolded, [with the result that they cannot judge fairly]. If it is not God who has put wicked people in control, who has done it?
The earth is giuen into the hand of ye wicked: he couereth the faces of the iudges therof: if not, where is he? or who is he?
25 “My days go by very quickly, like a fast runner; [it is as though] they run away, and nothing good happens to me on those days.
My dayes haue bene more swift then a post: they haue fled, and haue seene no good thing.
26 My life goes by very rapidly, like a boat made from reeds sailing swiftly, or like an eagle that swoops down to seize a small animal.
They are passed as with the most swift ships, and as the eagle that flyeth to the pray.
27 If I smile and say [to God], ‘I will forget what I am complaining about; I will stop looking sad and try to be cheerful/happy,’
If I say, I wil forget my complaynt, I will cease from my wrath, and comfort mee,
28 then I become afraid because of all that I am suffering, because I know that God does not consider that I am innocent.
Then I am afrayd of all my sorowes, knowing that thou wilt not iudge me innocent.
29 He will (condemn me/declare that I should be punished), so why should I keep trying in vain [to defend myself]?
If I be wicked, why labour I thus in vaine?
30 If I washed myself with snow or cleansed my hands with lye/soap [to get rid of my guilt],
If I wash my selfe with snowe water, and purge mine hands most cleane,
31 he would still throw me into a filthy pit; as a result [it would be as though] even my clothes would detest me.
Yet shalt thou plunge mee in the pit, and mine owne clothes shall make me filthie.
32 “God is not a human, as I am, so there is no way that I could answer him [to prove that I am innocent] if we went together to have a trial [in a courtroom].
For he is not a man as I am, that I shoulde answere him, if we come together to iudgement.
33 There is no one to (mediate/hear us and decide who is right), no one who has authority over both of us [IDM].
Neyther is there any vmpire that might lay his hand vpon vs both.
34 I wish/desire that he would stop punishing [MTY] me, and that he would not continue to terrify me.
Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his feare astonish me:
35 If he did that, I would declare [that I am innocent] without being afraid of him, because I know that I really have not [done what is wrong like God thinks that I have].”
Then will I speake, and feare him not: but because I am not so, I holde me still.
