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Job Replies: There Is No Mediator

9Then Job answered:
² ‘Indeed I know that this is so;
   but how can a mortal be just before God?
³ If one wished to contend with him,
   one could not answer him once in a thousand.
⁴ He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength
—who has resisted him, and succeeded?—
⁵ he who removes mountains, and they do not know it,
   when he overturns them in his anger;
⁶ who shakes the earth out of its place,
   and its pillars tremble;
⁷ who commands the sun, and it does not rise;
   who seals up the stars;
⁸ who alone stretched out the heavens
   and trampled the waves of the Sea;^*
9 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.^*
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?^*
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^* 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^* 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.^*

Job: I Loathe My Life

10‘I loathe my life;
   I will give free utterance to my complaint;
   I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
² I will say to God, Do not condemn me;
   let me know why you contend against me.
³ Does it seem good to you to oppress,
   to despise the work of your hands
   and favour the schemes of the wicked?
⁴ Do you have eyes of flesh?
   Do you see as humans see?
⁵ Are your days like the days of mortals,
   or your years like human years,
⁶ that you seek out my iniquity
   and search for my sin,
⁷ although you know that I am not guilty,
   and there is no one to deliver out of your hand?
⁸ Your hands fashioned and made me;
   and now you turn and destroy me.^*
9 Remember that you fashioned me like clay;
   and will you turn me to dust again?
¹⁰ Did you not pour me out like milk
   and curdle me like cheese?
¹¹ You clothed me with skin and flesh,
   and knit me together with bones and sinews.
¹² You have granted me life and steadfast love,
   and your care has preserved my spirit.
¹³ Yet these things you hid in your heart;
   I know that this was your purpose.
¹⁴ If I sin, you watch me,
   and do not acquit me of my iniquity.
¹⁵ If I am wicked, woe to me!
   If I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head,
for I am filled with disgrace
   and look upon my affliction.
¹⁶ Bold as a lion you hunt me;
   you repeat your exploits against me.
¹⁷ You renew your witnesses against me,
   and increase your vexation towards me;
   you bring fresh troops against me.^*

¹⁸ ‘Why did you bring me forth from the womb?
   Would that I had died before any eye had seen me,
¹⁹ and were as though I had not been,
   carried from the womb to the grave.
²⁰ Are not the days of my life few?^*
   Let me alone, that I may find a little comfort^*
21 before I go, never to return,
   to the land of gloom and deep darkness,
²² the land of gloom^* and chaos,
   where light is like darkness.’