Job 9:1–20
Job Replies: There Is No Arbiter
9 Then Job answered and said:
2 “Truly I know that it is so:
But how can a man be zin the right before God?
3 If one wished to acontend with him,
one could not answer him once in a thousand times.
4 He is bwise in heart and mighty in strength
—who has chardened himself against him, and succeeded?—
5 he who removes mountains, and they know it not,
when he overturns them in his anger,
6 who dshakes the earth out of its place,
and eits pillars tremble;
7 who commands the sun, and it does not rise;
who seals up the stars;
8 who alone fstretched out the heavens
and trampled the waves of the sea;
9 who gmade hthe Bear and iOrion,
the Pleiades jand the chambers of the south;
10 who does kgreat things beyond searching out,
and marvelous things beyond number.
11 Behold, he passes by me, and I lsee him not;
he moves on, but I do not perceive him.
12 Behold, he snatches away; mwho can turn him back?
nWho will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’
13 “God will not turn back his anger;
beneath him bowed the helpers of oRahab.
14 pHow then can I qanswer him,
choosing my words with him?
15 rThough I am in the right, I cannot answer him;
I must sappeal for mercy to my accuser.1
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 twithout cause;
18 he will not let me get my breath,
but fills me with bitterness.
19 If it is a contest of ustrength, behold, he is mighty!
If it is a matter of justice, who can vsummon him?2
20 Though I am in the right, wmy own mouth would condemn me;
though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.