1: Then Job answered, 2: "Truly I know that it is so, But how can man be just with God? 3: If he is pleased to contend with him, He can't answer him one time in a thousand. 4: God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: Who has hardened himself against him, and prospered? 5: Who removes the mountains, and they don't know it, When he overturns them in his anger 6: Who shakes the earth out of its place; The pillars of it tremble; 7: Who commands the sun, and it doesn't rise, And seals up the stars; 8: Who alone stretches out the heavens, Treads on the waves of the sea; 9: Who makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, And the chambers of the south; 10: Who does great things past finding out, Yes, marvelous things without number. 11: Behold, he goes by me, and I don't see him. He passes on also, but I don't perceive him. 12: Behold, he snatches away; 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 shall I answer him, Choose my words to argue with him? 15: Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer. I would make supplication to my judge. 16: If I had called, and he had answered me, Yet would I not believe that he listened to my voice. 17: For he breaks me with a tempest, Multiplies my wounds without cause. 18: He will not allow me to take my breath, But fills me with bitterness. 19: If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty! If of justice, 'Who,' says he, 'will summon me?' 20: Though I am righteous, my own mouth shall condemn me. Though I am blameless, it shall prove me perverse. 21: I am blameless. I don't regard myself. I despise my life. 22: "It is all the same. Therefore I say, He destroys the blameless and the wicked. 23: If the scourge kills suddenly, He will mock at the trial of the innocent. 24: The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of the judges of it. 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 as the swift ships, As the eagle that swoops on the prey. 27: If I say, 'I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and cheer up;' 28: I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that 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 in the ditch. My own clothes shall abhor me. 32: For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, That we should come together in judgment. 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, For I am not so in myself.
