Job 9

9Yes, I’ve heard all that before.

But how can a human being win a case against God?

³How can anyone argue with him?

He can ask a thousand questions

that no one could ever answer.^s

⁴God is so wise and powerful;

no one can stand up against him.

⁵Without warning he moves mountains

and in anger he destroys them.

⁶God sends earthquakes and shakes the ground;

he rocks the pillars that support the earth.

⁷He can keep the sun from rising,

and the stars from shining at night.

⁸No one helped God spread out the heavens

or trample the sea monster’s back.^t

^9*God hung the stars in the sky—the Great Bear,

Orion, the Pleiades, and the stars of the south.

¹⁰We cannot understand the great things he does,

and to his miracles there is no end.

¹¹God passes by, but I cannot see him.

¹²He takes what he wants, and no one can stop him;

no one dares ask him, “What are you doing?”

¹³God’s anger is constant. He crushed his enemies

who helped Rahab,^u the sea monster, oppose him.

¹⁴So how can I find words to answer God?

¹⁵Though I am innocent, all I can do

is beg for mercy from God my judge.

¹⁶Yet even then, if he lets me speak,

I can’t believe he would listen to me.

¹⁷He sends storms to batter and bruise me

without any reason at all.

¹⁸He won’t let me get my breath;

he has filled my life with bitterness.

¹⁹Should I try force? Try force on God?

Should I take him to court? Could anyone make him go?^v

²⁰I am innocent and faithful, but my words sound guilty,

and everything I say seems to condemn me.

^21–22I am innocent, but I no longer care.

I am sick of living. Nothing matters;

innocent or guilty, God will destroy us.

²³When an innocent person suddenly dies, God laughs.

²⁴God gave the world to the wicked.

He made all the judges blind.

And if God didn’t do it, who did?

²⁵My days race by, not one of them good.

²⁶My life passes like the swiftest boat,

as fast as an eagle swooping down on a rabbit.

^27–28If I smile and try to forget my pain,

all my suffering comes back to haunt me;

I know that God does hold me guilty.

²⁹Since I am held guilty, why should I bother?

³⁰No soap can wash away my sins.

³¹God throws me into a pit of filth,

and even my clothes are ashamed of me.

³²If God were human, I could answer him;

we could go to court to decide our quarrel.

³³But there is no one to step between us—

no one to judge both God and me.

³⁴Stop punishing me, God!

Keep your terrors away!

³⁵I am not afraid. I am going to talk

because I know my own heart.