Job 9
Evangelical Heritage Version
Round One: Job’s Third Speech
9 Then Job responded:
2 Of course I know that this is true.
But how can a man be justified before God?
3 If someone wants to argue with God,
he could not refute one charge out of a thousand.[a]
4 God has a wise heart and great power,
so who can resist God and come out of it unharmed?
5 God removes mountains from their position,
and they don’t even realize it.
He overturns mountains in his anger.
6 He shakes the earth off its foundation.
He causes its pillars to quake.
7 He speaks to the sun, and it does not rise,
and he seals up the stars.
8 He alone stretches out the heavens.
He treads on the crests of the sea.
9 He made the Bear, Orion, the Pleiades,[b]
and the constellations in the southern sky.
10 He does great things that are beyond investigation.
He does miracles that are too many to be counted.
11 Though he passes by me, I do not see him.
He moves past me, but I do not detect him.
12 If he snatches something away, who can make him bring it back?
Who can say to him, “What are you doing?”
13 God does not hold back his anger.
Even Rahab’s[c] helpers bow down beneath him.
14 How much less, then, will I be able to answer him?
I want to match words with him,
15 but even if I am in the right, I cannot answer him.
I can only plead to my judge for grace.
16 If I called and he responded to me,
I do not believe that he would listen to my voice.
17 With a violent storm he would crush me,
and he would inflict many wounds on me for no reason.
18 He would not allow me to catch my breath.
Instead, he would fill me with bitter experiences.
19 If it is a question of strength, he definitely is the strong one.
If it is a question of jurisdiction, who can summon him?[d]
20 Even if I am righteous, my mouth would still condemn me.
If I am blameless, it would pronounce me crooked.
21 Although I am blameless, I cannot evaluate[e] myself.
I reject my own life.
22 Here is why I say, “It makes no difference.”
Blameless or wicked, he brings them all to the same end.
23 If a whip suddenly kills people,
he makes fun of[f] the despair of the innocent.
24 When a land is handed over to a wicked man,
God blinds the eyes of its judges.
If he is not the one, then who does it?
25 My days are swifter than a runner.
They fly away without bringing any happiness.
26 They glide by like reed boats,
like an eagle that swoops down on its prey.
27 If I say, “I will forget my complaint.
I will put on a happy face and smile,”
28 even then I dread all my pain,
because I know that you will not acquit me.
29 I have already been declared guilty,
so why should I struggle for nothing.
30 If I wash myself with snow,
if I cleanse my hands with strong soap,
31 then you will plunge me into a cesspool,
and my clothes will detest me.
32 For he is not a man as I am,
so that I am able to answer him,
so that we may meet in court.
33 There is no one to mediate[g] between us,
no one who can lay his hand on both of us.
34 No one can make him take his rod away from me,
so that the dread of him would not fill me with terror!
35 If that happened, I would speak up and not be afraid.
But I have no such mediator. I am left on my own.
Footnotes
- Job 9:3 Or God would not answer him one time out of a thousand
- Job 9:9 The identification of these constellations is uncertain.
- Job 9:13 Rahab is a sea monster that symbolizes the sea’s power.
- Job 9:19 The translation him is based on the Greek text. The Hebrew text reads me.
- Job 9:21 Literally know
- Job 9:23 Or makes light of
- Job 9:33 Or arbitrate
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.