Job 9
- 1Then Job answered,
- 2"Truly I know that it is so, But how can man be just with God?
- 3If he is pleased to contend with him, He can't answer him one time in a thousand.
- 4God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: Who has hardened himself against him, and prospered?
- 5Who removes the mountains, and they don't know it, When he overturns them in his anger
- 6Who shakes the earth out of its place; The pillars of it tremble;
- 7Who commands the sun, and it doesn't rise, And seals up the stars;
- 8Who alone stretches out the heavens, Treads on the waves of the sea;
- 9Who makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, And the chambers of the south;
- 10Who does great things past finding out, Yes, marvelous things without number.
- 11Behold, he goes by me, and I don't see him. He passes on also, but I don't perceive him.
- 12Behold, he snatches away; who can hinder him? Who will ask him, 'What are you doing?'
- 13"God will not withdraw his anger; The helpers of Rahab stoop under him.
- 14How much less shall I answer him, Choose my words to argue with him?
- 15Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer. I would make supplication to my judge.
- 16If I had called, and he had answered me, Yet would I not believe that he listened to my voice.
- 17For he breaks me with a tempest, Multiplies my wounds without cause.
- 18He will not allow me to take my breath, But fills me with bitterness.
- 19If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty! If of justice, 'Who,' says he, 'will summon me?'
- 20Though I am righteous, my own mouth shall condemn me. Though I am blameless, it shall prove me perverse.
- 21I am blameless. I don't regard myself. I despise my life.
- 22"It is all the same. Therefore I say, He destroys the blameless and the wicked.
- 23If the scourge kills suddenly, He will mock at the trial of the innocent.
- 24The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of the judges of it. If not he, then who is it?
- 25"Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away, they see no good,
- 26They have passed away as the swift ships, As the eagle that swoops on the prey.
- 27If I say, 'I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and cheer up;'
- 28I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that you will not hold me innocent.
- 29I shall be condemned; Why then do I labor in vain?
- 30If I wash myself with snow, And cleanse my hands with lye,
- 31Yet you will plunge me in the ditch. My own clothes shall abhor me.
- 32For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, That we should come together in judgment.
- 33There is no umpire between us, That might lay his hand on us both.
- 34Let him take his rod away from me, Let his terror not make me afraid:
- 35Then I would speak, and not fear him, For I am not so in myself.
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