Job 9

1 Then Job answered,

Then Job answered and said,

2 “Truly I know that it is so, but how can man be just with God?

I know of a truth that it is so: for how shall a mortal man be just before the Lord?

3 If he is pleased to contend with him, he can’t answer him one time in a thousand.

For if he would enter into judgment with him, [God] would not hearken to him, so that he should answer to one of his charges of a thousand.

4 God is wise in heart, and mighty in strength. Who has hardened himself against him and prospered?

For he is wise in mind, and mighty, and great: who has hardened himself against him and endured?

5 He removes the mountains, and they don’t know it, when he overturns them in his anger.

Who wears out the mountains, and [men] know it not: who overturns them in anger.

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

Who shakes the [earth] under heaven from its foundations, and its pillars totter.

7 He commands the sun and it doesn’t rise, and seals up the stars.

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

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

Who alone has stretched out the heavens, and walks on the sea as on firm ground.

9 He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the rooms of the south.

Who makes Pleias, and Hesperus, and Arcturus, and the chambers of the south.

10 He does great things past finding out; yes, marvellous things without number.

Who does great and unsearchable things; glorious also and excellent things, innumerable.

11 Behold, he goes by me, and I don’t see him. He passes on also, but I don’t perceive him.

If ever he should go beyond me, I shall not see him: if he should pass by me, neither thus have I known [it].

12 Behold, he snatches away. Who can hinder him? Who will ask him, ‘What are you doing?’

If he would take away, who shall turn him back? or who shall say to him, What hast thou done?

13 “God will not withdraw his anger. The helpers of Rahab stoop under him.

For [if] he has turned away [his] anger, the whales under heaven have stooped under him.

14 How much less will I answer him, and choose my words to argue with him?

Oh then that he would hearken to me, or judge my cause.

15 Though I were righteous, yet I wouldn’t answer him. I would make supplication to my judge.

For though I be righteous, he will not hearken to me: I will intreat his judgment.

16 If I had called, and he had answered me, yet I wouldn’t believe that he listened to my voice.

And if I should call and he should not hearken, I cannot believe that he has listened to my voice.

17 For he breaks me with a storm, and multiplies my wounds without cause.

Let him not crush me with a dark storm: but he has made by bruises many without cause.

18 He will not allow me to catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness.

For he suffers me not to take breath, but he has filled me with bitterness.

19 If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty! If of justice, ‘Who,’ says he, ‘will summon me?’

For indeed he is strong in power: who then shall resist his judgment?

20 Though I am righteous, my own mouth will condemn me. Though I am blameless, it will prove me perverse.

For though I should seem righteous, my mouth will be profane: and though I should seem blameless, I shall be proved perverse.

21 I am blameless. I don’t respect myself. I despise my life.

For even if I have sinned, I know it not [in] my soul: but my life is taken away.

22 “It is all the same. Therefore I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked.

Wherefore I said, Wrath slays the great and mighty man.

23 If the scourge kills suddenly, he will mock at the trial of the innocent.

For the worthless die, but the righteous are laughed to scorn.

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?

For they are delivered into the hands of the unrighteous [man]: he covers the faces of the judges [of the earth]: but if it be not he, who is it?

25 “Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away. They see no good.

But my life is swifter than a post: [my days] have fled away, and they knew it not.

26 They have passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that swoops on the prey.

Or again, is there a trace of [their] path [left] by ships? or is there one of the flying eagle as it seeks [its] prey?

27 If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and cheer up,’

And if I should say, I will forget to speak, I will bow down my face and groan;

28 I am afraid of all my sorrows. I know that you will not hold me innocent.

I quake in all my limbs, for I know that thou wilt not leave me alone [as] innocent.

29 I will be condemned. Why then do I labour in vain?

But since I am ungodly, why have I not died?

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

For if I should wash myself with snow, and purge myself with pure hands,

31 yet you will plunge me in the ditch. My own clothes will abhor me.

thou hadst thoroughly plunged me in filth, and my garment had abhorred me.

32 For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, that we should come together in judgement.

For thou art not man like me, with whom I could contend, that we might come together to judgment.

33 There is no umpire between us, that might lay his hand on us both.

Would that [he] our mediator were [present], and a reprover, and one who should hear [the cause] between both.

34 Let him take his rod away from me. Let his terror not make me afraid;

Let him remove [his] rod from me, and let not his fear terrify me:

35 then I would speak, and not fear him, for I am not so in myself.

so shall I not be afraid, but I will speak: for I am not thus conscious [of guilt].