Job 9

^{Job 9:1} Then Job answered:

^{Job 9:2} “Yes, I know that it is so, but how can a mortal be righteous before God?

^{Job 9:3} If one wished to contend with God, he could not answer Him one time out of a thousand.

^{Job 9:4} God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has resisted Him and prospered?

^{Job 9:5} He moves mountains without their knowledge and overturns them in His anger.

^{Job 9:6} He shakes the earth from its place, so that its foundations tremble.

^{Job 9:7} He commands the sun not to shine; He seals off the stars.

^{Job 9:8} He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.

^{Job 9:9} He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, of the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.

^{Job 9:10} He does great things beyond searching out, and wonders without number.

^{Job 9:11} Were He to pass by me, I would not see Him; were He to move, I would not recognize Him.

^{Job 9:12} If He takes away, who can stop Him? Who dares to ask Him, ‘What are You doing?’

^{Job 9:13} God does not restrain His anger; the helpers of Rahab cower beneath Him.

^{Job 9:14} How then can I answer Him or choose my arguments against Him?

^{Job 9:15} For even if I were right, I could not answer. I could only beg my Judge for mercy.

^{Job 9:16} If I summoned Him and He answered me, I do not believe He would listen to my voice.

^{Job 9:17} For He would crush me with a tempest and multiply my wounds without cause.

^{Job 9:18} He does not let me catch my breath, but overwhelms me with bitterness.

^{Job 9:19} If it is a matter of strength, He is indeed mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon Him?

^{Job 9:20} Even if I were righteous, my mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, it would declare me guilty.

^{Job 9:21} Though I am blameless, I have no concern for myself; I despise my own life.

^{Job 9:22} It is all the same, and so I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’

^{Job 9:23} When the scourge brings sudden death, He mocks the despair of the innocent.

^{Job 9:24} The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; He blindfolds its judges. If it is not He, then who is it?

^{Job 9:25} My days are swifter than a runner; they flee without seeing good.

^{Job 9:26} They sweep by like boats of papyrus, like an eagle swooping down on its prey.

^{Job 9:27} If I were to say, ‘I will forget my complaint and change my expression and smile,’

^{Job 9:28} I would still dread all my sufferings; I know that You will not acquit me.

^{Job 9:29} Since I am already found guilty, why should I labor in vain?

^{Job 9:30} If I should wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye,

^{Job 9:31} then You would plunge me into the pit, and even my own clothes would despise me.

^{Job 9:32} For He is not a man like me, that I can answer Him, that we can take each other to court.

^{Job 9:33} Nor is there a mediator between us, to lay his hand upon us both.

^{Job 9:34} Let Him remove His rod from me, so that His terror will no longer frighten me.

^{Job 9:35} Then I would speak without fear of Him. But as it is, I am on my own.