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Job – Chapter 9

Books of The Bible / Book of Job

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!