Job 9

JOB’S REPLY TO BILDAD

9Then Job answered:

²Yes, I know what you’ve said is true,

but how can a person be justified before God?^ac

³If one wanted to take^ad him to court,

he could not answer God^E once in a thousand times.^a

⁴God is wise^b and all-powerful.

Who has opposed him and come out unharmed?

⁵He removes mountains without their knowledge,

overturning them in his anger.^c

⁶He shakes the earth from its place

so that its pillars tremble.

⁷He commands the sun not to shine

and seals off the stars.^d

⁸He alone stretches out the heavens^e

and treads on the waves of the sea.^A

⁹He makes the stars: the Bear,^B Orion,

the Pleiades,^f and the constellations^C of the southern sky.

¹⁰He does great and unsearchable things,

wonders without number.^g

¹¹If he passed by me, I wouldn’t see him;^h

if he went by, I wouldn’t recognize him.

¹²If he snatches something, who can stop^D him?

Who can ask him, “What are you doing?”ⁱ

¹³God does not hold back his anger;

Rahab’s^j assistants cringe in fear beneath him!

¹⁴How then can I answer him

or choose my arguments against him?

¹⁵Even if I were in the right, I could not answer.

I could only beg my Judge for mercy.^k

¹⁶If I summoned him and he answered me,

I do not believe he would pay attention to what I said.

¹⁷He batters me with a whirlwind^l

and multiplies my wounds without cause.

¹⁸He doesn’t let me catch my breath

but fills me with bitter experiences.

¹⁹If it is a matter of strength, look, he is the powerful one!^m

If it is a matter of justice, who can summonⁿ him?^E

²⁰Even if I were in the right, my own mouth would condemn me;^o

if I were blameless, my mouth would declare me guilty.

²¹Though I am blameless,

I no longer care about myself;

I renounce my life.^p

²²It is all the same. Therefore I say,

“He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.”^q

²³When catastrophe^F brings sudden death,

he mocks the despair of the innocent.

²⁴The earth^G is handed over to the wicked;

he blindfolds^I its judges.^r

If it isn’t he, then who is it?

²⁵My days fly by faster than a runner;^Is

they flee without seeing any good.^t

²⁶They sweep by like boats made of papyrus,

like an eagle swooping down on its prey.^u

²⁷If I said, “I will forget my complaint,

change my expression, and smile,”

²⁸I would still live in terror of all my pains.^v

I know you will not acquit me.^w

²⁹Since I will be found guilty,^x

why should I struggle in vain?

³⁰If I wash myself with snow,

and cleanse my hands with lye,

³¹then you dip me in a pit of mud,

and my own clothes despise me!

³²For he is not a man like me, that I can answer him,^y

that we can take each other to court.

³³There is no mediator between us,

to lay his hand on both of us.

³⁴Let him take his rod away from me

so his terror will no longer frighten me.^z

³⁵Then I would speak and not fear him.

But that is not the case; I am on my own.