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Job Replies: There Is No Mediator

Then Job answered:

‘Indeed I know that this is so;
    but how can a mortal be just before God?
If one wished to contend with him,
    one could not answer him once in a thousand.
He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength
—who has resisted him, and succeeded?—
he who removes mountains, and they do not know it,
    when he overturns them in his anger;
who shakes the earth out of its place,
    and its pillars tremble;
who commands the sun, and it does not rise;
    who seals up the stars;
who alone stretched out the heavens
    and trampled the waves of the Sea;[a]
who made the Bear and Orion,
    the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;
10 who does great things beyond understanding,
    and marvellous things without number.
11 Look, he passes by me, and I do not see him;
    he moves on, but I do not perceive him.
12 He snatches away; who can stop him?
    Who will say to him, “What are you doing?”

13 ‘God will not turn back his anger;
    the helpers of Rahab bowed beneath him.
14 How then can I answer him,
    choosing my words with him?
15 Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him;
    I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.[b]
16 If I summoned him and he answered me,
    I do not believe that he would listen to my voice.
17 For he crushes me with a tempest,
    and multiplies my wounds without cause;
18 he will not let me get my breath,
    but fills me with bitterness.
19 If it is a contest of strength, he is the strong one!
    If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?[c]
20 Though I am innocent, my own mouth would condemn me;
    though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.
21 I am blameless; I do not know myself;
    I loathe my life.
22 It is all one; therefore I say,
    he destroys both the blameless and the wicked.
23 When disaster brings sudden death,
    he mocks at the calamity[d] of the innocent.
24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;
    he covers the eyes of its judges—
    if it is not he, who then is it?

25 ‘My days are swifter than a runner;
    they flee away, they see no good.
26 They go by like skiffs of reed,
    like an eagle swooping on the prey.
27 If I say, “I will forget my complaint;
    I will put off my sad countenance and be of good cheer”,
28 I become afraid of all my suffering,
    for I know you will not hold me innocent.
29 I shall be condemned;
    why then do I labour in vain?
30 If I wash myself with soap
    and cleanse my hands with lye,
31 yet you will plunge me into filth,
    and my own clothes will abhor me.
32 For he is not a mortal, as I am, that I might answer him,
    that we should come to trial together.
33 There is no umpire[e] between us,
    who might lay his hand on us both.
34 If he would take his rod away from me,
    and not let dread of him terrify me,
35 then I would speak without fear of him,
    for I know I am not what I am thought to be.[f]

Footnotes

  1. Job 9:8 Or trampled the back of the sea dragon
  2. Job 9:15 Or for my right
  3. Job 9:19 Compare Gk: Heb me
  4. Job 9:23 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  5. Job 9:33 Another reading is Would that there were an umpire
  6. Job 9:35 Cn: Heb for I am not so in myself

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