Job 9 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Job Replies: There Is No Arbiter

Job 9:1

Job 9:1Then Job answered and said:

Job 9:2

Job 9:2“Truly I know that it is so:
But how can a man be in the right before God?

Job 9:3

Job 9:3If one wished to contend with him,
one could not answer him once in a thousand times.

Job 9:4

Job 9:4He is wise in heart and mighty in strength
—who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?—

Job 9:5

Job 9:5he who removes mountains, and they know it not,
when he overturns them in his anger,

Job 9:6

Job 9:6who shakes the earth out of its place,
and its pillars tremble;

Job 9:7

Job 9:7who commands the sun, and it does not rise;
who seals up the stars;

Job 9:8

Job 9:8who alone stretched out the heavens
and trampled the waves of the sea;

Job 9:9

Job 9:9who made the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;

Job 9:10

Job 9:10who does great things beyond searching out,
and marvelous things beyond number.

Job 9:11

Job 9:11Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not;
he moves on, but I do not perceive him.

Job 9:12

Job 9:12Behold, he snatches away; who can turn him back?
Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’

Job 9:13

Job 9:13“God will not turn back his anger;
beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab.

Job 9:14

Job 9:14How then can I answer him,
choosing my words with him?

Job 9:15

Job 9:15Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him;
I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.[fn]

Job 9:16

Job 9:16If I summoned him and he answered me,
I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.

Job 9:17

Job 9:17For he crushes me with a tempest
and multiplies my wounds without cause;

Job 9:18

Job 9:18he will not let me get my breath,
but fills me with bitterness.

Job 9:19

Job 9:19If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty!
If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?[fn]

Job 9:20

Job 9:20Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me;
though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.

Job 9:21

Job 9:21I am blameless; I regard not myself;
I loathe my life.

Job 9:22

Job 9:22It is all one; therefore I say,
‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’

Job 9:23

Job 9:23When disaster brings sudden death,
he mocks at the calamity[fn] of the innocent.

Job 9:24

Job 9:24The 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?

Job 9:25

Job 9:25“My days are swifter than a runner;
they flee away; they see no good.

Job 9:26

Job 9:26They go by like skiffs of reed,
like an eagle swooping on the prey.

Job 9:27

Job 9:27If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint,
I will put off my sad face, and be of good cheer,’

Job 9:28

Job 9:28I become afraid of all my suffering,
for I know you will not hold me innocent.

Job 9:29

Job 9:29I shall be condemned;
why then do I labor in vain?

Job 9:30

Job 9:30If I wash myself with snow
and cleanse my hands with lye,

Job 9:31

Job 9:31yet you will plunge me into a pit,
and my own clothes will abhor me.

Job 9:32

Job 9:32For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him,
that we should come to trial together.

Job 9:33

Job 9:33There is no[fn] arbiter between us,
who might lay his hand on us both.

Job 9:34

Job 9:34Let him take his rod away from me,
and let not dread of him terrify me.

Job 9:35

Job 9:35Then I would speak without fear of him,
for I am not so in myself.

See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

ESV Footnotes

(9:15)

Or to my judge

(9:19)

Or who can grant me a hearing?

(9:23)

The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain

(9:33)

Or Would that there were an

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For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.