Job
Job 9
1 Then Job answered:
2 I know in truth that it is so:
how can a mortal be righteous before the Lord?
3 If a man wanted to go to law with him,
the Lord would not answer him,
and the man could not answer one charge of his out of a thousand.
4 He is wise in mind, mighty and great.
Who ever set himself hard against him and lasted?
Who Moves the Mountains
5 He wears the mountains away, and no one knows it;
he overturns them in his anger.
6 He shakes what lies under heaven out of its foundations,
and its pillars sway.
7 He speaks to the sun, and it does not rise;
he puts his seal on the stars.
8 He alone stretched out the sky,
and he walks on the sea as on a floor.
9 He makes the Pleiades and Hesperus and Arcturus,
and the chambers of the south.
10 He does great things past tracing out,
glorious and extraordinary things beyond counting.
11 If he goes over me, I do not see him;
if he passes me by, even then I do not know it.
12 If he carries something off, who will turn him back?
Who will say to him, “What have you done?”
13 He himself has turned his anger back;
under him the sea creatures beneath heaven were bowed down.
14 If only he would answer me —
would he really weigh my words?
15 Even if I am righteous, he will not listen to me;
I can only beg for his judgment.
16 And if I call and he does answer,
I cannot believe that he has listened to me.
He Will Not Let Me Get My Breath
17 Will he crush me with thick darkness?
He has made my wounds many, and for nothing.
18 He does not let me get my breath;
he has filled me with bitterness.
19 In strength he prevails —
so who can stand up against his judgment?
20 Even if I am righteous, my own mouth will speak ungodly things;
even if I am blameless, I will come out crooked.
21 If I have been ungodly, I do not know it in my soul —
I know only that my life is being taken from me.
22 That is why I said:
anger destroys the great man and the sovereign alike,
23 for the worthless die an extraordinary death,
while the righteous are laughed at.
24 They are handed over into the hands of the ungodly.
He covers the faces of the earth’s judges.
If it is not he, then who is it?
25 My life is lighter on its feet than a runner;
my days have fled away, and they saw nothing.
26 Is there a track left behind by ships,
or by an eagle in flight, looking for its food?
27 And if I say, “I will forget my words,”
and bow my face down and groan,
28 I shake in every limb,
for I know you will not leave me guiltless.
29 And since I am ungodly, why did I not die?
30 If I washed myself with snow
and scrubbed myself clean with clean hands,
31 you dipped me deep enough in filth,
and my own robe turned from me in disgust.
If Only There Were Someone Between Us
32 You are not a man as I am, that I could answer you back,
so that we could come to judgment together.
33 If only there were someone to stand between us,
to try the case and to hear us both.
34 Let him take his rod away from me,
and let the terror of him stop whirling me about.
35 Then I would not be afraid; I would speak.
For I know nothing of the kind against myself.