Job 9
1 Then Job replied,
Then Job answered,
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]
“Truly I know that it is so, but how can 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 is pleased to contend with him, he can’t answer him one time in a thousand.
4 God is very wise [IDM] and very powerful; no one who has tried to challenge God has been able to win.
God is wise in heart, and mighty in strength. Who has hardened himself against him and prospered?
5 He even moves mountains, without them (OR, anyone) knowing about it. When he is angry, he turns them upside down.
He removes the mountains, and they don’t know it, when he overturns them in his anger.
6 He sends earthquakes that shake the ground; he causes the pillars that support the earth to tremble.
He shakes the earth out of its place. Its pillars tremble.
7 [Some days] he speaks to the sun, and it does not rise, and [some nights] he prevents the stars from shining.
He commands the sun and it doesn’t rise, 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).
He alone stretches 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.
He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the rooms 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 does great things past finding out; yes, marvelous things 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.
Behold, he goes by me, and I don’t see him. He passes on also, but I don’t perceive him.
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 snatches away. Who can hinder him? Who will ask him, ‘What are you doing?’
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 withdraw his anger. The helpers of Rahab stoop under him.
14 “So, [if God took me to court], what could I say [MTY] to answer him?
How much less will I answer him, and choose my words to argue 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.
Though I were righteous, yet I wouldn’t answer him. 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 I wouldn’t believe that he 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 storm, 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 allow me to catch 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 it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty! If of justice, ‘Who,’ says he, ‘will summon me?’
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.
Though I am righteous, my own mouth will condemn me. Though I am blameless, it will prove me perverse.
21 “I have not done what is wrong, but that is not important. I despise continuing to remain alive.
I am blameless. I don’t respect myself. I 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.
“It is all the same. Therefore I say he destroys the blameless 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 kills suddenly, he will mock 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 its judges. If not he, then who is it?
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 runner. 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 have passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that swoops on 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 put off my sad face, and cheer up,’
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]?
I will be condemned. Why then do I labor 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, and cleanse my hands with lye,
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 you will plunge me in the ditch. My own clothes will 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, that 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].
There is no umpire 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. Let his terror not make me afraid;
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 I would speak, and not fear him, for I am not so in myself.
