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9:1 Then Job answered:
9:2 “Truly, I know that this is so. But how can a human be just before God? 9:3 If someone wishes to contend with him, he cannot answer him one time in a thousand. 9:4 He is wise in heart and mighty in strength — who has resisted him and remained safe? 9:5 He who removes mountains suddenly, who overturns them in his anger, 9:6 he who shakes the earth out of its place so that its pillars tremble, 9:7 he who commands the sun, and it does not shine and seals up the stars, 9:8 he alone spreads out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. 9:9 He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the constellations of the southern sky; 9:10 he does great and unsearchable things, and wonderful things without number. 9:11 If he passes by me, I cannot see him; if he goes by, I cannot perceive him. 9:12 If he snatches away, who can turn him back? Who dares to say to him, ‘What are you doing?’ 9:13 God does not restrain his anger; under him the helpers of Rahab lie crushed.
9:14 “How much less, then, can I answer him and choose my words to argue with him. 9:15 Although I am innocent, I could not answer him; I could only plead with my judge for mercy. 9:16 If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he would be listening to my voice— 9:17 he who crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds for no reason. 9:18 He does not allow me to recover my breath, for he fills me with bitterness. 9:19 If it is a matter of strength, most certainly he is the strong one! And if it is a matter of justice, he will say, ‘Who will summon me?’ 9:20 Although I am innocent, my mouth would condemn me; although I am blameless, it would declare me perverse. 9:21 I am blameless. I do not know myself. I despise my life.
9:22 “It is all one! That is why I say, ‘He destroys the blameless and the guilty.’ 9:23 If a scourge brings sudden death, he mocks at the despair of the innocent. 9:24 If a land has been given into the hand of a wicked man, he covers the faces of its judges; if it is not he, then who is it?
9:25 “My days are swifter than a runner, they speed by without seeing happiness. 9:26 They glide by like reed boats, like an eagle that swoops down on its prey. 9:27 If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will change my expression and be cheerful,’ 9:28 I dread all my sufferings, for I know that you do not hold me blameless. 9:29 If I am guilty, why then weary myself in vain? 9:30 If I wash myself with snow-melt water and make my hands clean with lye, 9:31 then you plunge me into a slimy pit and my own clothes abhor me. 9:32 For he is not a human being like I am, that I might answer him, that we might come together in judgment. 9:33 Nor is there an arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both, 9:34 who would take his rod away from me so that his terror would not make me afraid. 9:35 Then would I speak and not fear him, but it is not so with me.
NET Bible Second Edition. Copyright 2017 Biblical Studies Press
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