Job
Job, Chapter 9
And Job answered and said,
Truly I know [it is so], but how can man be just with God?
If he will argue with Him, he cannot answer Him one of a thousand.
[He is] wise in heart, and mighty in strength. Who has hardened [himself] against Him and been blessed;
[He] who removes the mountains, and they know it not, when He overturns them in His anger;
[He] who shakes the earth out of its place, and the pillars of it tremble;
the one speaking to the sun, and it does not rise; and seals up the stars;
who alone stretches out the heavens, and walks on the waves of the sea;
who made the Bear, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south;
who is doing great things past finding out; yea, marvelous things without number?
Behold! He goes by me, and I do not see [Him]; He passes on also, but I do not perceive Him.
Behold, He takes away; who can turn Him back? Who will say to Him, What are You doing?
God will not withdraw His anger; the helpers of pride stoop under Him.
How much less shall I answer Him, [and] choose my arguments with Him?
Whom, though I were righteous, [yet] I would not answer; I seek mercy for my judgment.
If I had called and He had answered me, yet would I not believe that He had listened to my voice;
[He] who breaks me with a tempest, and multiplies my wounds without cause;
[who] will not allow me to take my breath, but fills me with bitterness.
If [I speak] of strength, lo, [He is] mighty! And if of judgment, who shall set me a time?
If I justify myself, my own mouth shall condemn me; [though] I [am] perfect, He shall declare me perverse.
[Though] I [were] perfect, yet I would not know my soul. I would despise my life.
It [is] One, therefore I said, He is consuming the perfect and the wicked.
If the whip kills suddenly, He will mock at the calamity of the innocent.
The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; He covers the faces of its judges; if it [is] not [He], then who [is] it?
Now my days are swifter than a runner; they flee away, they see no good.
They have passed away like the swift ships; like the eagle who swoops on the prey.
If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will depart from my heaviness and be of good cheer,
I am afraid of all my sorrows; I know that You will not hold me innocent.
I have been condemned; why then should I labor in vain?
If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands ever so clean,
yet You will plunge me into the ditch and my own clothes shall despise me.
For [He is] not a man, as I [am, that] I should answer Him, [that] we should come together in judgment;
there is no mediator between us, [who] might lay his hand on us both.
Let Him take His rod away from me, and let not His fear make me afraid;
[then] would I speak and not fear Him; for [it is] not so with me.