# Job 9 
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1. Then Job answered and said: 
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2. “Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God? 
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3. If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times. 
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4. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength —who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?— 
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5. he who removes mountains, and they know it not, when he overturns them in his anger, 
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6. who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble; 
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7. who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars; 
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8. who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea; 
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9. who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south; 
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10. who does great things beyond searching out, and marvelous things beyond number. 
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11. Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not; he moves on, but I do not perceive him. 
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12. Behold, he snatches away; who can turn him back? Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’ 
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13. “God will not turn back his anger; beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab. 
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14. How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him? 
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15. Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser. 
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16. If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice. 
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17. For he crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause; 
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18. he will not let me get my breath, but fills me with bitterness. 
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19. If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him? 
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20. Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse. 
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21. I am blameless; I regard not myself; I loathe my life. 
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22. It is all one; therefore I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’ 
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23. When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent. 
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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? 
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25. “My days are swifter than a runner; they flee away; they see no good. 
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26. They go by like skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping on the prey. 
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27. If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and be of good cheer,’ 
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28. I become afraid of all my suffering, for I know you will not hold me innocent. 
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29. I shall be condemned; why then do I labor in vain? 
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30. If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye, 
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31. yet you will plunge me into a pit, and my own clothes will abhor me. 
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32. For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. 
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33. There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both. 
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34. Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me. 
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35. Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself. 

(ESV)