The Message Bible MSG
World English Bible WEB
1 Job continued by saying:
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Then Job answered,
2 "So what's new? I know all this. The question is, 'How can mere mortals get right with God?'
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"Truly I know that it is so, But how can man be just with God?
3 If we wanted to bring our case before him, what chance would we have? Not one in a thousand!
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If he is pleased to contend with him, He can't answer him one time in a thousand.
4 God's wisdom is so deep, God's power so immense, who could take him on and come out in one piece?
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God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: Who has hardened himself against him, and prospered?
5 He moves mountains before they know what's happened, flips them on their heads on a whim.
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Who removes the mountains, and they don't know it, When he overturns them in his anger
6 He gives the earth a good shaking up, rocks it down to its very foundations.
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Who shakes the earth out of its place; The pillars of it tremble;
7 He tells the sun, 'Don't shine,' and it doesn't; he pulls the blinds on the stars.
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Who commands the sun, and it doesn't rise, And seals up the stars;
8 All by himself he stretches out the heavens and strides on the waves of the sea.
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Who alone stretches out the heavens, Treads on the waves of the sea;
9 He designed the Big Dipper and Orion, the Pleiades and Alpha Centauri.
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Who makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, And the chambers of the south;
10 We'll never comprehend all the great things he does; his miracle-surprises can't be counted.
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Who does great things past finding out, Yes, marvelous things without number.
11 Somehow, though he moves right in front of me, I don't see him; quietly but surely he's active, and I miss it.
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Behold, he goes by me, and I don't see him. He passes on also, but I don't perceive him.
12 If he steals you blind, who can stop him? Who's going to say, 'Hey, what are you doing?'
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Behold, he snatches away; who can hinder him? Who will ask him, 'What are you doing?'
13 God doesn't hold back on his anger; even dragon-bred monsters cringe before him.
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"God will not withdraw his anger; The helpers of Rahab stoop under him.
14 "So how could I ever argue with him, construct a defense that would influence God?
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How much less shall I answer him, Choose my words to argue with him?
15 Even though I'm innocent I could never prove it; I can only throw myself on the Judge's mercy.
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Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer. I would make supplication to my judge.
16 If I called on God and he himself answered me, then, and only then, would I believe that he'd heard me.
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If I had called, and he had answered me, Yet would I not believe that he listened to my voice.
17 As it is, he knocks me about from pillar to post, beating me up, black and blue, for no good reason.
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For he breaks me with a tempest, Multiplies my wounds without cause.
18 He won't even let me catch my breath, piles bitterness upon bitterness.
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He will not allow me to take my breath, But fills me with bitterness.
19 If it's a question of who's stronger, he wins, hands down! If it's a question of justice, who'll serve him the subpoena?
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If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty! If of justice, 'Who,' says he, 'will summon me?'
20 Even though innocent, anything I say incriminates me; blameless as I am, my defense just makes me sound worse. If God's Not Responsible, Who Is?
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Though I am righteous, my own mouth shall condemn me. Though I am blameless, it shall prove me perverse.
21 "Believe me, I'm blameless. I don't understand what's going on. I hate my life!
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I am blameless. I don't regard myself. I despise my life.
22 Since either way it ends up the same, I can only conclude that God destroys the good right along with the bad.
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"It is all the same. Therefore I say, He destroys the blameless and the wicked.
23 When calamity hits and brings sudden death, he folds his arms, aloof from the despair of the innocent.
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If the scourge kills suddenly, He will mock at the trial of the innocent.
24 He lets the wicked take over running the world, he installs judges who can't tell right from wrong. If he's not responsible, who is?
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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 "My time is short - what's left of my life races off too fast for me to even glimpse the good.
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"Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away, they see no good,
26 My life is going fast, like a ship under full sail, like an eagle plummeting to its prey.
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They have passed away as the swift ships, As the eagle that swoops on the prey.
27 Even if I say, 'I'll put all this behind me, I'll look on the bright side and force a smile,'
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If I say, 'I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and cheer up;'
28 All these troubles would still be like grit in my gut since it's clear you're not going to let up.
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I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that you will not hold me innocent.
29 The verdict has already been handed down - 'Guilty!' - so what's the use of protests or appeals?
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I shall be condemned; Why then do I labor in vain?
30 Even if I scrub myself all over and wash myself with the strongest soap I can find,
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If I wash myself with snow, And cleanse my hands with lye,
31 It wouldn't last - you'd push me into a pigpen, or worse, so nobody could stand me for the stink.
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Yet you will plunge me in the ditch. My own clothes shall abhor me.
32 "God and I are not equals; I can't bring a case against him. We'll never enter a courtroom as peers.
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For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, That we should come together in judgment.
33 How I wish we had an arbitrator to step in and let me get on with life -
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There is no umpire between us, That might lay his hand on us both.
34 To break God's death grip on me, to free me from this terror so I could breathe again.
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Let him take his rod away from me, Let his terror not make me afraid:
35 Then I'd speak up and state my case boldly. As things stand, there is no way I can do it.
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Then I would speak, and not fear him, For I am not so in myself.