Job 9

1 Then Job answered and said,

2 Of a truth I know that it is so. But how can man be just with God?

3 If he is pleased to contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand.

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

5 He who removes the mountains, and they do not know it when he overturns them in his anger,

6 who shakes the earth out of its place, and the pillars of it tremble,

7 who commands the sun, and it does not rise, and seals up the stars,

8 who alone stretches out the heavens, and treads upon the waves of the sea,

9 who makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the chambers of the south,

10 who does great things past finding out, yea, marvelous things without number.

11 Lo, he goes by me, and I do not see him. He also passes on, but I do not perceive him.

12 Behold, he seizes; who can hinder him? Who will say to him, What are thou doing?

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

14 How much less shall I answer him, and choose out my words to reason with him?

15 Whom, though I were righteous, yet I would not answer. I would make supplication to my judge.

16 If I had called, and he had answered me, yet I would not believe that he hearkened to my voice.

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

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

19 If of strength, lo, he is mighty! And if of justice, who will summon me?

20 Though I be righteous, my own mouth shall condemn me. Though I be perfect, it shall prove me perverse.

21 Though I were perfect, I do not regard myself. I despise my life.

22 It is all one thing. Therefore I say, He destroys the perfect and the wicked.

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

24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of the judges of it. If not he, who then is it?

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

26 They are 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 countenance, and be of good cheer,

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

29 I shall be condemned. Why then do I labor in vain?

30 If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands ever so clean,

31 yet thou will plunge me in the ditch, and my own clothes shall 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 who might lay his hand upon us both.

34 Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his terror make me afraid.

35 Then I would speak, and not be afraid of him, for I am not so in myself.