Job - Chapter 9

¹ Job spoke next. He said:

² Indeed, I know it is as you say: how could anyone claim to be upright before God?

³ Anyone trying to argue matters with him, could not give him one answer in a thousand.

⁴ Among the wisest and the hardiest, who then can successfully defy him?

⁵ He moves the mountains, though they do not know it; he throws them down when he is angry.

⁶ He shakes the earth, and moves it from its place, making all its pillars tremble.

⁷ The sun, at his command, forbears to rise, and on the stars he sets a seal.

⁸ He and no other has stretched out the heavens and trampled on the back of the Sea.

⁹ He has made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the Mansions of the South.

¹⁰ The works he does are great and unfathomable, and his marvels cannot be counted.

¹¹ If he passes me, I do not see him; he slips by, imperceptible to me.

¹² If he snatches his prey, who is going to stop him or dare to ask, 'What are you doing?'

¹³ God does not renounce his anger: beneath him, Rahab's minions still lie prostrate.

¹⁴ And here am I, proposing to defend myself and select my arguments against him!

¹⁵ Even if I am upright, what point is there in answering him? I can only plead for mercy with my judge!

¹⁶ And if he deigned to answer my citation, I cannot believe he would listen to what I said,

¹⁷ he who crushes me for one hair, who, for no reason, wounds and wounds again,

¹⁸ not even letting me regain my breath, with so much bitterness he fills me!

¹⁹ Shall I try force? Look how strong he is! Or go to court? But who will summon him?

²⁰ If I prove myself upright, his mouth may condemn me, even if I am innocent, he may pronounce me perverse.

²¹ But am I innocent? I am no longer sure, and life itself I despise!

²² It is all one, and hence I boldly say: he destroys innocent and guilty alike.

²³ When a sudden deadly scourge descends, he laughs at the plight of the innocent.

²⁴ When a country falls into the power of the wicked, he veils the faces of its judges. Or if not he, who else?

²⁵ My days pass: more swiftly than a runner they flee away with never a glimpse of happiness,

²⁶ they skim past like a reed canoe, like an eagle swooping on its prey.

²⁷ If I decide to stifle my complaining, change countenance, and wear a smiling face,

²⁸ fear seizes me at the thought of all my woes, for I know you do not regard me as innocent.

²⁹ And if I have done wrong, why should I put myself to useless trouble?

³⁰ If I wash myself in melted snow, clean my hands with soda,

³¹ you will only plunge me into the dung, till my clothes themselves recoil from me!

³² For he is not human like me: impossible for me to answer him or appear alongside him in court.

³³ There is no arbiter between us, to lay his hand on both,

³⁴ to stay his rod from me, or keep away his daunting terrors.

³⁵ Nonetheless, unafraid of him, I shall speak: since I do not see myself like that at all!

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