Job 9
1 Then Job replied,
Then Job answered and said,
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 know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?
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 he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one 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 has hardened himself against him, and has prospered?
5 He even moves mountains, without them (OR, anyone) knowing about it. When he is angry, he turns them upside down.
Which removes the mountains, and they know not: which overturns them in his anger.
6 He sends earthquakes that shake the ground; he causes the pillars that support the earth to tremble.
Which shakes the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.
7 [Some days] he speaks to the sun, and it does not rise, and [some nights] he prevents the stars from shining.
Which commands the sun, and it rises not; and seals up the stars.
8 He alone (stretched out/put in place) the sky; he alone puts his feet on the waves (OR, on the huge sea monster).
Which alone spreads out the heavens, and treads on the waves 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.
Which makes Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.
10 Only he does great things that we cannot understand; he does more marvelous things than we are able to count.
Which does great things past finding out; yes, and wonders without number.
11 He passes by where I am, but I do not see him; he moves further on, but I do not see him go.
See, he goes by me, and I see him not: he passes on also, but I perceive 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, he takes away, who can hinder him? who will say to him, What do you?
13 God will not very easily stop being angry; he defeated [MTY] those who [tried to] help Rahab, [the great sea monster].
If God will not withdraw his anger, the proud helpers do stoop under him.
14 “So, [if God took me to court], what could I say [MTY] to answer him?
How much less shall I answer him, and choose out my words to reason 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.
Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer, but I would make supplication to my judge.
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 had called, and he had answered me; yet would I not believe that he had listened to my voice.
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 breaks me with a tempest, and multiplies my wounds 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 will not suffer me to take my breath, but fills me with bitterness.
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 I speak of strength, see, he is strong: and if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead?
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 justify myself, my own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.
21 “I have not done what is wrong, but that is not important. I despise continuing to remain alive.
Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul: I would despise 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 thing, therefore I said it, He destroys the perfect 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 whip slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial 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 given into the hand of the wicked: he covers the faces of the judges thereof; if not, where, and 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.
Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good.
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 away as the swift ships: as the eagle that hastens to the prey.
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 will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort myself:
28 then I become afraid because of all that I am suffering, because I know that God does not consider that I am innocent.
I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that you will not hold 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 then labor I in vain?
30 If I washed myself with snow or cleansed my hands with lye/soap [to get rid of my guilt],
If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean;
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 shall you plunge me in the ditch, and my own clothes shall abhor me.
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 should answer him, and we should come together in judgment.
33 There is no one to (mediate/hear us and decide who is right), no one who has authority over both of us [IDM].
Neither is there any judge between us, that might lay his hand on us 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 fear terrify 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 would I speak, and not fear him; but it is not so with me.
