1 T hen Job answered,

2 “ Truly I know that it is so, but how can man be just with God?

3 I f he is pleased to contend with him, he can’t answer him one time in a thousand.

4 G od who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who has hardened himself against him, and prospered?

5 H e removes the mountains, and they don’t know it, when he overturns them in his anger.

6 H e shakes the earth out of its place. Its pillars tremble.

7 H e commands the sun, and it doesn’t rise, and seals up the stars.

8 H e alone stretches out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea.

9 H e makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the rooms of the south.

10 H e does great things past finding out; yes, marvelous things without number.

11 B ehold, he goes by me, and I don’t see him. He passes on also, but I don’t perceive him.

12 B ehold, he snatches away. Who can hinder him? Who will ask him, ‘What are you doing?’

13 “ God will not withdraw his anger. The helpers of Rahab stoop under him.

14 H ow much less shall I answer him, And choose my words to argue with him?

15 T hough I were righteous, yet I wouldn’t answer him. I would make supplication to my judge.

16 I f I had called, and he had answered me, yet I wouldn’t believe that he listened to my voice.

17 F or he breaks me with a storm, and multiplies my wounds without cause.

18 H e will not allow me to catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness.

19 I f it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty! If of justice, ‘Who,’ says he, ‘will summon me?’

20 T hough I am righteous, my own mouth shall condemn me. Though I am blameless, it shall prove me perverse.

21 I am blameless. I don’t respect myself. I despise my life.

22 “ It is all the same. Therefore I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked.

23 I f the scourge kills suddenly, he will mock at the trial of the innocent.

24 T he earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If not he, then who is it?

25 “ Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away, they see no good,

26 T hey have passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that swoops on the prey.

27 I f I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and cheer up;’

28 I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that you will not hold me innocent.

29 I shall be condemned. Why then do I labor in vain?

30 I f I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye,

31 y et you will plunge me in the ditch. My own clothes shall abhor me.

32 F or he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, that we should come together in judgment.

33 T here is no umpire between us, that might lay his hand on us both.

34 L et him take his rod away from me. Let his terror not make me afraid;

35 t hen I would speak, and not fear him, for I am not so in myself.