Hymnic praise

¹Job responded:

²I know for certain that this is so;

and how can anyone be innocent before God?

³If one wants to contend with him,

he won’t answer one in a thousand.

⁴He is wise and powerful;[#9.4 Or wise in heart ; cf 37:24]

who can resist him and prosper?

⁵Who removes mountains, and they are unaware;

who overthrows them in anger?

⁶Who shakes the earth from its place,

and its pillars shudder?

⁷Who commands the sun, and it does not rise,

even seals up the stars;

⁸stretched out the heavens alone

and trod on the waves of the Sea;

⁹made the Bear and Orion, Pleiades

and the southern constellations;

¹⁰does great and unsearchable things,

wonders beyond number?

A mismatch

¹¹If God goes by me, I can’t see him;

he glides past, and I can’t perceive him.

¹²If he seizes, who can bring back?

Who can say to him, “What are you doing?”

¹³God won’t retract his anger;

the helpers of Rahab bow beneath him.

¹⁴Yet I myself will answer him;

I’ll choose my words in a contest with him.

¹⁵Even if I’m innocent, I can’t answer;

I must plead for justice.

¹⁶If I were to call and he answered me,

I couldn’t believe that he heard my voice.

¹⁷Who bruises me with a tempest

and multiplies my wounds for no reason?

¹⁸He doesn’t let me catch my breath,

for he fills me with bitterness.

¹⁹If the issue is strength—behold power!

If justice—who calls God to meet me?

There is no justice

²⁰If I’m innocent, my mouth condemns me;

I have integrity; but God declares me perverse.

²¹I’m blameless, yet don’t know myself;

I reject my life.

²²It’s all the same;

therefore, I say God destroys the blameless and the sinners.

²³If calamity suddenly kills,

he mocks at the slaying of innocents.

²⁴The earth is handed over to the wicked;

he covers the faces of its judges.

If not God, then who does?

Job wants an arbitrator

²⁵My days are swifter than a runner;

they flee and don’t experience good.

²⁶They sweep by like ships made of reeds,

as an eagle swoops on prey.

²⁷If I say, “I’ll forget my lament,

put on a different face so I can smile,”

²⁸I’m still afraid of all my suffering;

²⁹I myself am thought guilty;

why have I tried so hard in vain?

³⁰If I wash myself with snow,

³¹then you’ll hurl me into a slimy pit

³²God is not a man like me—someone I could answer—

so that we could come together in court.

³³Oh, that there were a mediator between us;[#9.33 Or There is no]

he would lay his hand on both of us,

³⁴remove his rod from me,

³⁵Then I would speak—unafraid—

for I’m not that way.