Job: No Arbiter Between God and Man
1 Then Job answered,
2 “Indeed, I know that this is true,
but how can man be righteous before God?
3 If one wanted to contend with Him,
he could not answer him one time in a thousand.
4 God who is wise in heart and mighty in strength,
who has resisted him and succeeded?
5 He removes the mountains, and they do not know it,
when he overturns them in his anger.
6 He shakes the earth out of its place.
Its pillars tremble.
7 He commands the sun, and it does not rise,
and seals up the stars.
8 He alone stretches out the heavens,
and treads on the waves of the sea.
9 He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades,
and the constellations of the south.
10 He does great, unsearchable things,
yes, wonders without number.
11 He passes by me, and I do not see him.
He goes by me, but I do not perceive him.
12 He snatches away,
and 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 How much less can I answer him,
And choose my words to argue with him?
15 Even if I were righteous, I still could not answer him.
I could only make supplications to my judge.
16 If I had called, and he had answered me,
yet I would not believe that he listened to my voice.
17 For he breaks me with a storm
and multiplies my wounds without cause.
18 He will not allow me to catch my breath,
but fills me with bitterness.
19 If it is a matter of strength, indeed, he is mighty!
If it is a matter of justice, who will summon him?
20 Though I were righteous, my own mouth would condemn me.
Though I were blameless, it would prove me perverse.
21 Although I am innocent,
I have no regard for myself.
I despise my life.
22 It is all the same, therefore I say
he destroys both the blameless and the wicked.
23 If the scourge kills suddenly,
he mocks the trial of the innocent.
24 The 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 They have passed away like swift ships,
like the eagle that swoops on the prey.
27 If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint,
I will take off my sad face and cheer up,’
28 I would still dread all the suffering to come,
for I know that you will not hold me innocent.
29 I will be condemned.
Why then do I labor in vain?
30 If I wash myself with snow,
and cleanse my hands with soap,
31 yet you will plunge me in the ditch.
My own clothes will abhor me.
32 For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him,
that we should go to trial together.
33 There is no umpire between us,
that might lay his hand on us both.
34 Let him take his rod away from me.
Let his terror not make me afraid.
35 Then I would speak, and not fear him,
but this is not so for me.”