¹Then Job answered and said, ²“Truly I know that it is so, but how can a human being be just before God? ³If he wants to contend with him, he cannot answer him one time in a thousand. ⁴He is wise in heart and mighty in strength; who has resisted him and succeeded? ⁵“He is the one who moves mountains, and they do not know how, who overturns them in his anger. ⁶He is the one who shakes the earth from its place, and its pillars tremble. ⁷He is the one who commands the sun, and it does not rise, ⌞and he seals up the stars⌟. ⁸He is the one who alone stretches out the heavens and who tramples on the waves of the sea. ⁹He is the one who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the south. ¹⁰He is the one who does great things ⌞beyond understanding⌟ and marvelous things ⌞beyond number⌟. ¹¹“⌞If⌟ he passes by me, ⌞I would not see him⌟; and if he should move on, ⌞I would not recognize him⌟. ¹²⌞If⌟ he would snatch away, who could turn him? Who could say to him, ‘What are you doing?’ ¹³God will not turn back his anger; beneath him the helpers of Rahab bow. ¹⁴⌞How much less⌟ can I myself answer him? How can I choose my words with him, ¹⁵whom I cannot answer, even though I am righteous? From my judge I must implore grace. ¹⁶If I summon him, and he should answer me, I do not believe that he will listen to my voice— ¹⁷who crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause. ¹⁸He will not allow me to ⌞catch⌟ my breath; rather, he will fill me with bitterness. ¹⁹If ⌞it is a matter of⌟ strength, look, he is mighty. But if ⌞it is a matter of⌟ justice, who can summon me? ²⁰Even though I am righteous, my mouth will condemn me; even though I am blameless, yet it would pronounce me guilty. ²¹“I am blameless; I do not care about myself; I loathe my life. ²²It is all one; therefore I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’ ²³When the whip kills suddenly, he mocks at the despair of the innocent. ²⁴The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the face of its judge— if it is not he, then who is it? ²⁵“And my days are swifter than a runner; they flee away; they do not see good. ²⁶They go by like papyrus skiffs, like an eagle swoops down on its prey. ²⁷Though ⌞I say⌟, ‘I will forget my complaint; I will change my expression, and I will rejoice,’ ²⁸I become afraid of all my sufferings; I know that you do not consider me innocent. ²⁹If I shall be declared guilty, why then should I labor in vain? ³⁰If I wash myself with soap, and I cleanse my hands with lye, ³¹then you plunge me into the slime pit, and my clothes abhor me. ³²“For he is not a mortal like me that I can answer him, that ⌞we can come to trial together⌟. ³³There is no arbiter between us that he might lay his hand on both of us. ³⁴May he remove his rod from me, and let his dread not terrify me; ³⁵then I would speak and not fear him, for ⌞in myself I am not fearful⌟.