Chapter 9
1 Then Job answered ,
2 " Truly I know that it is so , but how can man be just with God?
3 If he is pleased to contend with him , he can ’t answer him one time in a thousand.
4 God is wise in heart , and mighty in strength . Who has hardened himself against him and prospered ?
5 He removes the mountains , and they don’t know it , when he overturns them in his anger.
6 He shakes the earth out of its place . Its pillars tremble .
7 He commands the sun and it doesn’t rise , and seals up the stars .
8 He alone stretches out the heavens , and treads on the waves of the sea .
9 He makes the Bear , Orion , and the Pleiades , and the rooms of the south .
10 He does great things past finding out ; yes, marvelous things without number .
11 Behold , he goes by me , and I don’t see him . He passes on also, but I don’t perceive him .
12 Behold , 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 .
14 How much less will I answer him , and choose my words to argue with him ?
15 Though I were righteous , yet I wouldn’t answer him . I would make supplication to my judge .
16 If I had called , and he had answered me , yet I wouldn’t believe that he listened to my voice .
17 For he breaks me with a storm , and multiplies my wounds without cause .
18 He will not allow me to catch my breath , but fills me with bitterness .
19 If it is a matter of strength , behold , he is mighty ! If of justice , ‘ Who ,’ says he , ‘ will summon me ?’
20 Though I am righteous , my own mouth will condemn me . Though I am blameless , it will prove me perverse .
21 I am blameless . I don’t respect myself . I despise my life .
22 " It is all the same . Therefore I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked .
23 If the scourge kills suddenly , he will mock at the trial of the innocent .
24 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 " Now my days are swifter than a runner . They flee away . They see no good .
26 They have 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 face , and cheer up,’
28 I am afraid of all my sorrows . I know that you will not hold me innocent .
29 I will be condemned . Why then do I labor in vain ?
30 If I wash myself with snow , and cleanse my hands with lye ,
31 yet you will plunge me in the ditch . My own clothes will 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 , that might lay his hand on us both .
34 Let him take his rod away from me . Let his terror not make me afraid ;
35 then I would speak , and not fear him , for I am not so in myself.