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1Then Job answered:
2“Indeed, I know that this is so,[#Rom 3.20]
but how can a mortal be just before God?
3If one wished to contend with him,[#Ps 143.2]
one could not answer him once in a thousand.
4He is wise in heart and mighty in strength;[#2 Chr 13.12; Job 36.5]
who has resisted him and succeeded?
5He removes mountains, and they do not know it
when he overturns them in his anger;
6he shakes the earth out of its place,[#Job 26.11; Isa 2.19, 21; Hag 2.6; Heb 12.26]
and its pillars tremble;
7he commands the sun, and it does not rise;
he seals up the stars;
8he alone stretched out the heavens[#Gen 1.6; Ps 104.2, 3]
and trampled the waves of the Sea;
9he made the Bear and Orion,[#Gen 1.16; Job 38.31; Am 5.8]
the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;
10he does great things beyond understanding[#Ps 71.15]
and marvelous things without number.
11Look, he passes by me, and I do not see him;[#Job 23.8, 9; 35.14]
he moves on, but I do not perceive him.
12He snatches away; who can stop him?[#Job 11.10; Isa 45.9; Rom 9.20]
Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’
13“God will not turn back his anger;[#Job 26.12; Isa 30.7]
the helpers of Rahab bowed beneath him.
14How then can I answer him,
choosing my words with him?
15Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him;[#Job 8.5; 10.15]
I must appeal to my accuser for my right.
16If I summoned him and he answered me,
I do not believe that he would listen to my voice.
17For he crushes me with a tempest[#Job 2.3; 16.12, 14]
and multiplies my wounds without cause;
18he will not let me get my breath[#Job 27.2]
but fills me with bitterness.
19If it is a contest of strength, he is the strong one!
If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?
20Though I am innocent, my own mouth would condemn me;
though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.
21I am blameless; I do not know myself;[#Job 1.1; 7.16]
I loathe my life.
22It is all one; therefore I say,[#Eccl 9.2, 3; Ezek 21.3]
‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’
23When disaster brings sudden death,[#Ps 64.4; Heb 11.36; 1 Pet 1.7]
he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.
24The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;[#Job 10.3; 12.6, 17]
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.
26They go by like skiffs of reed,[#Hab 1.8]
like an eagle swooping on the prey.
27If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint;
I will put off my sad countenance and be of good cheer,’
28I become afraid of all my suffering,
for I know you will not hold me innocent.
29I shall be condemned;[#v 20]
why then do I labor in vain?
30If I wash myself with soap[#Jer 2.22]
and cleanse my hands with lye,
31yet you will plunge me into filth,
and my own clothes will abhor me.
32For he is not a mortal, as I am, that I might answer him,[#v 3 ; Ps 143.2; Eccl 6.10; Rom 9.20]
that we should come to trial together.
33There is no mediator between us,[#1 Sam 2.25; #9.33 Another reading is Would that there were a mediator]
who might lay his hand on us both.
34If he would take his rod away from me[#Job 13.21; Ps 39.10]
and not let dread of him terrify me,
35then I would speak without fear of him,
for I know I am not what I am thought to be.