Job 9
1 Then Job answered and said,
Then Job answered and said,
2 I know of a truth that it is so: for how shall a mortal man be just before the Lord?
Of a truth I know that it is so. But how can man be just with God?
3 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.
If he is pleased to contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand.
4 For he is wise in mind, and mighty, and great: who has hardened himself against him and endured?
He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength. Who has hardened himself against him, and prospered?
5 Who wears out the mountains, and [men] know it not: who overturns them in anger.
He who removes the mountains, and they do not know it when he overturns them in his anger,
6 Who shakes the [earth] under heaven from its foundations, and its pillars totter.
who shakes the earth out of its place, and the pillars of it tremble,
7 Who commands the sun, and it rises not; and he seals up the stars.
who commands the sun, and it does not rise, and seals up the stars,
8 Who alone has stretched out the heavens, and walks on the sea as on firm ground.
who alone stretches out the heavens, and treads upon the waves of the sea,
9 Who makes Pleias, and Hesperus, and Arcturus, and the chambers of the south.
who makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the chambers of the south,
10 Who does great and unsearchable things; glorious also and excellent things, innumerable.
who does great things past finding out, yea, marvelous things without number.
11 If ever he should go beyond me, I shall not see him: if he should pass by me, neither thus have I known [it].
Lo, he goes by me, and I do not see him. He also passes on, but I do not perceive him.
12 If he would take away, who shall turn him back? or who shall say to him, What hast thou done?
Behold, he seizes; who can hinder him? Who will say to him, What are thou doing?
13 For [if] he has turned away [his] anger, the whales under heaven have stooped under him.
God will not withdraw his anger. The helpers of Rahab stoop under him.
14 Oh then that he would hearken to me, or judge my cause.
How much less shall I answer him, and choose out my words to reason with him?
15 For though I be righteous, he will not hearken to me: I will intreat his judgment.
Whom, though I were righteous, yet I would not answer. I would make supplication to my judge.
16 And if I should call and he should not hearken, I cannot believe that he has listened to my voice.
If I had called, and he had answered me, yet I would not believe that he hearkened to my voice.
17 Let him not crush me with a dark storm: but he has made by bruises many without cause.
For he breaks me with a tempest, and multiplies my wounds without cause.
18 For he suffers me not to take breath, but he has filled me with bitterness.
He will not allow me to take my breath, but fills me with bitterness.
19 For indeed he is strong in power: who then shall resist his judgment?
If of strength, lo, he is mighty! And if of justice, who will summon me?
20 For though I should seem righteous, my mouth will be profane: and though I should seem blameless, I shall be proved perverse.
Though I be righteous, my own mouth shall condemn me. Though I be perfect, it shall prove me perverse.
21 For even if I have sinned, I know it not [in] my soul: but my life is taken away.
Though I were perfect, I do not regard myself. I despise my life.
22 Wherefore I said, Wrath slays the great and mighty man.
It is all one thing. Therefore I say, He destroys the perfect and the wicked.
23 For the worthless die, but the righteous are laughed to scorn.
If the scourge kills suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent.
24 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?
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 But my life is swifter than a post: [my days] have fled away, and they knew it not.
Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away. They see no good,
26 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?
They are passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that swoops on the prey.
27 And if I should say, I will forget to speak, I will bow down my face and groan;
If I say, I will forget my complaint. I will put off my sad countenance, and be of good cheer,
28 I quake in all my limbs, for I know that thou wilt not leave me alone [as] innocent.
I am afraid of all my sorrows. I know that thou will not hold me innocent.
29 But since I am ungodly, why have I not died?
I shall be condemned. Why then do I labor in vain?
30 For if I should wash myself with snow, and purge myself with pure hands,
If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands ever so clean,
31 thou hadst thoroughly plunged me in filth, and my garment had abhorred me.
yet thou will plunge me in the ditch, and my own clothes shall abhor me.
32 For thou art not man like me, with whom I could contend, that we might come together to judgment.
For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, that we should come together in judgment.
33 Would that [he] our mediator were [present], and a reprover, and one who should hear [the cause] between both.
There is no umpire between us who might lay his hand upon us both.
34 Let him remove [his] rod from me, and let not his fear terrify me:
Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his terror make me afraid.
35 so shall I not be afraid, but I will speak: for I am not thus conscious [of guilt].
Then I would speak, and not be afraid of him, for I am not so in myself.
