Job 9

¹ Then Job answered,

² “ Truly I know that it is so,

³ If he is pleased to contend with him,

⁴ God is wise in heart, and mighty in strength.

⁵ He removes the mountains, and they don’t know it,

⁶ He shakes the earth out of its place. Its pillars tremble.

⁷ He commands the sun and it doesn’t rise,

⁸ He alone stretches out the heavens,

⁹ He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades,

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.

¹² Behold, he snatches away.

¹³ “ God will not withdraw his anger.

¹⁴ How much less will I answer him,

¹⁵ Though I were righteous, yet I wouldn’t answer him.

¹⁶ If I had called, and he had answered me,

¹⁷ For he breaks me with a storm,

¹⁸ He will not allow me to catch my breath,

¹⁹ If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty!

²⁰ Though I am righteous, my own mouth will condemn me. Though I am blameless, it will prove me perverse.

²¹ I am blameless.

²² “ It is all the same.

²³ If the scourge kills suddenly,

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

²⁵ “ Now my days are swifter than a runner.

²⁶ They have passed away as the swift ships,

²⁷ If I say, ‘ I will forget my complaint,

²⁸ I am afraid of all my sorrows.

²⁹ I will be condemned.

³⁰ If I wash myself with snow,

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,

³³ There is no umpire between us,

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,