Job Replies: There Is No Arbiter
1 Then Job answered and said:
2
"Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be
1in the right before God?
3
If one wished to
2contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times.
4
He is
3wise in heart and mighty in strength --who has
4hardened himself against him, and succeeded?--
5
he who removes mountains, and they know it not, when he overturns them in his anger,
6
who
5shakes the earth out of its place, and
6its pillars tremble;
7
who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars;
8
who alone
7stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea;
9
who
8made
9the Bear and
10Orion, the Pleiades
11and the chambers of the south;
10
who does
12great things beyond searching out, and marvelous things beyond number.
11
Behold, he passes by me, and I
13see him not; he moves on, but I do not perceive him.
12
Behold, he snatches away;
14who can turn him back?
15Who will say to him, 'What are you doing?'
13
"God will not turn back his anger; beneath him bowed the helpers of
16Rahab.
14
17How then can I
18answer him, choosing my words with him?
15
19Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him; I must
20appeal for mercy to my accuser.
16
If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.
17
For he crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds
21without cause;
18
he will not let me get my breath, but fills me with bitterness.
19
If it is a contest of
22strength, behold, he is mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can
23summon him?
20
Though I am in the right,
24my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.
21
I am
25blameless; I regard not myself; I
26loathe my life.
22
It is all one; therefore I say, He
27destroys both the blameless and the wicked.
23
When
28disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.
24
29The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he
30covers the faces of its judges--
31if it is not he, who then is it?
25
"My
32days are swifter than
33a runner; they flee away; they see no good.
26
They go by like
34skiffs of reed, like
35an eagle swooping on the prey.
27
If I say,
36'I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and
37be of good cheer,'
28
I become
38afraid of all my suffering, for I know you will not
39hold me innocent.
29
I shall be
40condemned; why then do I labor in vain?
30
If I wash myself with snow and
41cleanse my hands with lye,
31
yet you will plunge me into a pit, and my own clothes will
42abhor me.
32
For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should
43come to trial together.
33
44There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both.
34
45Let him take his
46rod away from me, and let
47not dread of him terrify me.
35
Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself.