Job - Chapter 9 | English Standard Version

  • 1. Then Job answered and said:
  • 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.
  • 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?
  • 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 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 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.
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