LEB - Job - 9

9:1  Then Job answered and said,

9:2  “Truly I know that it is so, but how can a human being be just before God?

9:3  If he wants to contend with him, he cannot answer him one time in a thousand.

9:4  He is wise in heart and mighty in strength; who has resisted him and succeeded?

9:5  “He is the one who moves mountains, and they do not know how, who overturns them in his anger.

9:6  He is the one who shakes the earth from its place, and its pillars tremble.

9:7  He is the one who commands the sun, and it does not rise, ⌞and he seals up the stars⌟.

9:8  He is the one who alone stretches out the heavens and who tramples on the waves of the sea.

9:9  He is the one who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.

9:10  He is the one who does great things ⌞beyond understanding⌟ and marvelous things ⌞beyond number⌟.

9:11  “⌞If⌟ he passes by me, ⌞I would not see him⌟; and if he should move on, ⌞I would not recognize him⌟.

9:12  ⌞If⌟ he would snatch away, who could turn him? Who could say to him, ‘What are you doing?’

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

9:14  ⌞How much less⌟ can I myself answer him? How can I choose my words with him,

9:15  whom I cannot answer, even though I am righteous? From my judge I must implore grace.

9:16  If I summon him, and he should answer me, I do not believe that he will listen to my voice—

9:17  who crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause.

9:18  He will not allow me to ⌞catch⌟ my breath; rather, he will fill me with bitterness.

9:19  If ⌞it is a matter of⌟ strength, look, he is mighty. But if ⌞it is a matter of⌟ justice, who can summon me?

9:20  Even though I am righteous, my mouth will condemn me; even though I am blameless, yet it would pronounce me guilty.

9:21  “I am blameless; I do not care about myself; I loathe my life.

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

9:23  When the whip kills suddenly, he mocks at the despair of the innocent.

9:24  The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the face of its judge— if it is not he, then who is it?

9:25  “And my days are swifter than a runner; they flee away; they do not see good.

9:26  They go by like papyrus skiffs, like an eagle swoops down on its prey.

9:27  Though ⌞I say⌟, ‘I will forget my complaint; I will change my expression, and I will rejoice,’

9:28  I become afraid of all my sufferings; I know that you do not consider me innocent.

9:29  If I shall be declared guilty, why then should I labor in vain?

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

9:31  then you plunge me into the slime pit, and my clothes abhor me.

9:32  “For he is not a mortal like me that I can answer him, that ⌞we can come to trial together⌟.

9:33  There is no arbiter between us that he might lay his hand on both of us.

9:34  May he remove his rod from me, and let his dread not terrify me;

9:35  then I would speak and not fear him, for ⌞in myself I am not fearful⌟.