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Job Replies: There Is No Arbiter

1 Then Job answered and said:

2  “Truly I know that it is so:
    But how can a man be in the right before God?
3  If one wished to contend with him,
    one could not answer him once in a thousand times.
4  He is wise in heart and mighty in strength
    —who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?—
5  he who removes mountains, and they know it not,
    when he overturns them in his anger,
6  who shakes the earth out of its place,
    and its pillars tremble;
7  who commands the sun, and it does not rise;
    who seals up the stars;
8  who alone stretched out the heavens
    and trampled the waves of the sea;
9  who made the Bear and Orion,
    the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;
10  who does great things beyond searching out,
    and marvelous things beyond number.
11  Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not;
    he moves on, but I do not perceive him.
12  Behold, he snatches away; who can turn him back?
    Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’

13  God will not turn back his anger;
    beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab.
14  How then can I answer him,
    choosing my words with him?
15  Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him;
    I must appeal for mercy to my accuser. ^{1 9:15 Or to my judge}
16  If I summoned him and he answered me,
    I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.
17  For he crushes me with a tempest
    and multiplies my wounds without cause;
18  he will not let me get my breath,
    but fills me with bitterness.
19  If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty!
    If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him? ^{2 9:19 Or who can grant me a hearing?}
20  Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me;
    though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.
21  I am blameless; I regard not myself;
    I loathe my life.
22  It is all one; therefore I say,
    ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’
23  When disaster brings sudden death,
    he mocks at the calamity ^{3 9:23 The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain} of the innocent.
24  The 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.
26  They go by like skiffs of reed,
    like an eagle swooping on the prey.
27  If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint,
    I will put off my sad face, and be of good cheer,’
28  I become afraid of all my suffering,
    for I know you will not hold me innocent.
29  I shall be condemned;
    why then do I labor in vain?
30  If I wash myself with snow
    and cleanse my hands with lye,
31  yet you will plunge me into a pit,
    and my own clothes will abhor me.
32  For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him,
    that we should come to trial together.
33  There is no ^{4 9:33 Or Would that there were an} arbiter between us,
    who might lay his hand on us both.
34  Let him take his rod away from me,
    and let not dread of him terrify me.
35  Then I would speak without fear of him,
    for I am not so in myself.