Then Job answered:
2 “Indeed I know that this is so; but how can a mortal be just before God? 3 If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand. 4 He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength —who has resisted him, and succeeded?— 5 he who removes mountains, and they do not know it, when he overturns them in his anger; 6 who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble; 7 who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars; 8 who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the Sea;[a] 9 who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south; 10 who does great things beyond understanding, and marvelous things without number. 11 Look, he passes by me, and I do not see him; he moves on, but I do not perceive him. 12 He snatches away; who can stop him? Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’
13 “God will not turn back his anger; the helpers of Rahab bowed beneath him. 14 How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him? 15 Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.[b] 16 If I summoned him and he answered me, I do not believe that he would listen to my voice. 17 For he crushes me with a tempest, and multiplies my wounds without cause; 18 he will not let me get my breath, but fills me with bitterness. 19 If it is a contest of strength, he is the strong one! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?[c] 20 Though I am innocent, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse. 21 I am blameless; I do not know myself; I loathe my life. 22 It is all one; therefore I say, he destroys both the blameless and the wicked. 23 When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity[d] of the innocent. 24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the eyes of its judges— if it is not he, who then is it?
25 “My days are swifter than a runner; they flee away, they see no good. 26 They go by like skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping on the prey. 27 If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint; I will put off my sad countenance and be of good cheer,’ 28 I become afraid of all my suffering, for I know you will not hold me innocent. 29 I shall be condemned; why then do I labor in vain? 30 If I wash myself with soap and cleanse my hands with lye, 31 yet you will plunge me into filth, and my own clothes will abhor me. 32 For he is not a mortal, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. 33 There is no umpire[e] between us, who might lay his hand on us both. 34 If he would take his rod away from me, and not let dread of him terrify me, 35 then I would speak without fear of him, for I know I am not what I am thought to be.[f]
Footnotes
a. Job 9:8 Or trampled the back of the sea dragon
b. Job 9:15 Or for my right
c. Job 9:19 Compare Gk: Heb me
d. Job 9:23 Meaning of Heb uncertain
e. Job 9:33 Another reading is Would that there were an umpire
f. Job 9:35 Cn: Heb for I am not so in myself
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.