Job 9

Job Replies: There Is No Mediator

⁹Then Job answered:

²“Indeed, I know that this is so,

but how can a mortal be just before God?^*

³If one wished to contend with him,

one could not answer him once in a thousand.^*

⁴He is wise in heart and mighty in strength;

who has resisted him and succeeded?^*

⁵He removes mountains, and they do not know it

when he overturns them in his anger;

⁶he shakes the earth out of its place,

and its pillars tremble;^*

⁷he commands the sun, and it does not rise;

he seals up the stars;

⁸he alone stretched out the heavens

and trampled the waves of the Sea;^o*

⁹he made the Bear and Orion,

the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;^*

¹⁰he does great things beyond understanding

and marvelous things without number.^*

¹¹Look, he passes by me, and I do not see him;

he moves on, but I do not perceive him.^*

¹²He snatches away; who can stop him?

Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’^*

¹³“God will not turn back his anger;

the helpers of Rahab bowed beneath him.^*

¹⁴How then can I answer him,

choosing my words with him?

¹⁵Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him;

I must appeal to my accuser for my right.^*

¹⁶If I summoned him and he answered me,

I do not believe that he would listen to my voice.

¹⁷For he crushes me with a tempest

and multiplies my wounds without cause;^*

¹⁸he will not let me get my breath

but fills me with bitterness.^*

¹⁹If it is a contest of strength, he is the strong one!

If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?^p

²⁰Though I am innocent, my own mouth would condemn me;

though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.

²¹I am blameless; I do not know myself;

I loathe my life.^*

²²It is all one; therefore I say,

‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’^*

²³When disaster brings sudden death,

he mocks at the calamity^q of the innocent.^*

²⁴The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;

he covers the eyes 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.

²⁶They go by like skiffs of reed,

like an eagle swooping on the prey.^*

²⁷If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint;

I will put off my sad countenance and be of good cheer,’

²⁸I become afraid of all my suffering,

for I know you will not hold me innocent.

²⁹I shall be condemned;

why then do I labor in vain?^*

³⁰If I wash myself with soap

and cleanse my hands with lye,^*

³¹yet you will plunge me into filth,

and my own clothes will abhor me.

³²For he is not a mortal, as I am, that I might answer him,

that we should come to trial together.^*

³³There is no mediator^r between us,

who might lay his hand on us both.^*

³⁴If he would take his rod away from me

and not let dread of him terrify me,^*

³⁵then I would speak without fear of him,

for I know I am not what I am thought to be.^s