Job 9
1 Then Job answered and said,
2 I know of a truth that it is so:
for how shall a mortal man be just before the Lord?
3 For if he would enter into judgment with him,
[1]God would not hearken to him,
so that he should answer to one of his charges of a thousand.
4 For he is wise in mind, and mighty, and great:
who hath hardened himself against him and endured?
5 Who weareth out the mountains, and men know it not:
who overturneth them in anger.
6 Who shaketh the earth under heaven from its foundations,
and its pillars totter.
7 Who commandeth the sun, and it riseth not;
and he sealeth up the stars.
8 Who alone hath stretched out the heavens,
and walketh on the sea as on firm ground.
9 Who maketh Pleias, and Hesperus, and Arcturus, and the chambers of the south.
10 Who doth great and unsearchable things;
glorious also and excellent things, innumerable.
11 If ever he should go beyond me, I shall not see him:
if he should pass by me, neither thus have I known it.
12 If he would take away, who shall turn him back?
or who shall say to him, What hast thou done?
13 For if he hath turned away his anger,
[2]the whales under heaven have stooped under him.
14 [3]O then that he would hearken to me, or judge my cause.
15 For though I be righteous, he will not hearken to me:
I will entreat his judgment.
16 And if I should call and he should [4]hearken,
I cannot believe that he hath listened to my voice.
17 Let him not crush me with a dark storm:
but he hath made my bruises many without cause.
18 For he suffereth me not to take breath,
but he hath filled me with bitterness.
19 For indeed he is strong in power:
who then shall resist his judgment?
20 For though I should [5]seem righteous, my mouth will be profane:
and though I should seem blameless, I shall be proved perverse.
21 For even if I have sinned, I know it not in my soul:
but my life is taken away.
22 Wherefore I said, Wrath slayeth the great and mighty man.
23 For the worthless die,
but the righteous are laughed to scorn.
24 For they are delivered into the hands of the unrighteous man:
he covereth the faces of the judges of the earth:
but if it be not he, who is it?
25 But my life is swifter than a post:
my days [6]have fled away, and they knew it not.
26 Or again, is there a trace of their path left by ships?
or is there one of the flying eagle as it seeketh its prey?
27 And if I should say, I will forget to speak,
I will bow down my face and groan;
28 I quake in all my limbs,
for I know that thou wilt not leave me alone as innocent.
29 But since I am ungodly, why have I not died?
30 For if I should wash myself with snow,
and purge myself with pure hands,
31 thou [7]hadst thoroughly plunged me in filth,
and my garment had abhorred me.
32 For thou art not man like me, with whom I could contend,
that we might come together to judgment.
33 Would that he our mediator were present, and a reprover,
and one who should hear the cause between both.
34 Let him remove his rod from me,
and let not his fear terrify me:
35 so shall I not be afraid, but I will speak:
for I am not thus conscious of guilt.