Job 9 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

2 “Truly I know that it is so:

But how can a man be in the right before God?

3 If one wished to contend with him,

one could not answer him once in a thousand times.

4 He is wise in heart and mighty in strength

—who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?—

5 he who removes mountains, and they know it not,

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;

9 who made the Bear and Orion,

the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;

10 who does great things beyond searching out,

and marvelous things beyond number.

11 Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not;

he moves on, but I do not perceive him.

12 Behold, he snatches away; who can turn him back?

Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’

13 “God will not turn back his anger;

beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab.

14 How then can I answer him,

choosing my words with him?

15 Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him;

I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.[fn]

16 If I summoned him and he answered me,

I would not believe that he was listening 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, behold, he is mighty!

If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?[fn]

20 Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me;

though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.

21 I am blameless; I regard not 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[fn] of the innocent.

24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;

he covers the faces 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 face, 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 snow

and cleanse my hands with lye,

31 yet you will plunge me into a pit,

and my own clothes will abhor me.

32 For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him,

that we should come to trial together.

33 There is no[fn] arbiter between us,

who might lay his hand on us both.

34 Let him take his rod away from me,

and let not dread of him terrify me.

35 Then I would speak without fear of him,

for I am not so in myself.