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Job 9

¹Then Job answered:

²"Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be just before God?

³If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times.

⁴He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength --who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?--

⁵he who removes mountains, and they know it not, when he overturns them in his anger;

⁶who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble;

⁷who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars;

⁸who alone stretched out the heavens, and trampled the waves of the sea;

⁹who made the Bear and Orion, the Plei'ades and the chambers of the south;

¹⁰who does great things beyond understanding, and marvelous things without number.

¹¹Lo, he passes by me, and I see him not; he moves on, but I do not perceive him.

¹²Behold, he snatches away; who can hinder him? who will say to him, `u'?

¹³"God will not turn back his anger; beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab.

¹⁴How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him?

¹⁵Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.

¹⁶If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.

¹⁷For he crushes me with a tempest, and multiplies my wounds without cause;

¹⁸he will not let me get my breath, but fills me with bitterness.

¹⁹If it is a contest of strength, behold him! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?

²⁰Though I am innocent, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.

²¹I am blameless; I regard not myself; I loathe my life.

²²It is all one; therefore I say, he destroys both the blameless and the wicked.

²³When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.

²⁴The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges-- if it is not he, who then is it?

²⁵"My days are swifter than a runner; they flee away, they see no good.

²⁶They go by like skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping on the prey.

²⁷If I say, ` I say, "I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad countenance, and be of good cheer,'

²⁸I become afraid of all my suffering, for I know thou wilt not hold me innocent.

²⁹I shall be condemned; why then do I labor in vain?

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

³¹yet thou wilt plunge me into a pit, and my own clothes will abhor me.

³²For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together.

³³There is no umpire between us, who might lay his hand upon us both.

³⁴Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me.

³⁵Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself.

Job 9 (RSV)

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Job

Chapter 9

9 of 42