¹ Then Job answered:

² “Yes, I know that it is so, but how can a mortal be righteous before God?

³ If one wished to contend with God,¹ he could not answer Him one time out of a thousand.

1. Or If God wished to contend with someone

⁴ God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has resisted Him and prospered?

⁵ He moves mountains without their knowledge and overturns them in His anger.

⁶ He shakes the earth from its place, so that its foundations tremble.

⁷ He commands the sun not to shine;¹ He seals off the stars.

1. Or rise

⁸ He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.

⁹ He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, of the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.

¹⁰ He does great things beyond searching out, and wonders without number.

¹¹ Were He to pass by me, I would not see Him; were He to move, I would not recognize Him.

¹² If He takes away,¹ who can stop Him? Who dares to ask Him, ‘What are You doing?’

1. Or snatches someone in death

¹³ God does not restrain His anger; the helpers of Rahab cower beneath Him.

¹⁴ How then can I answer Him or choose my arguments against Him?

¹⁵ For even if I were right, I could not answer. I could only beg my Judge for mercy.

¹⁶ If I summoned Him and He answered me, I do not believe He would listen to my voice.

¹⁷ For He would crush me with a tempest and multiply my wounds without cause.

¹⁸ He does not let me catch my breath, but overwhelms me with bitterness.

¹⁹ If it is a matter of strength, He is indeed mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon Him¹?

1. See LXX; Hebrew me

²⁰ Even if I were righteous, my mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, it would declare me guilty.¹

1. Or He would declare me guilty

²¹ Though I am blameless, I have no concern for myself; I despise my own life.

²² It is all the same, and so I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’

²³ When the scourge brings sudden death, He mocks the despair of the innocent.

²⁴ The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; He blindfolds its judges. If it is not He, then who is it?

²⁵ My days are swifter than a runner; they flee without seeing good.

²⁶ They sweep by like boats of papyrus, like an eagle swooping down on its prey.

²⁷ If I were to say, ‘I will forget my complaint and change my expression and smile,’

²⁸ I would still dread all my sufferings; I know that You will not acquit me.

²⁹ Since I am already found guilty, why should I labor in vain?

³⁰ If I should wash myself with snow¹ and cleanse my hands with lye,

1. Or soap

³¹ then You would plunge me into the pit, and even my own clothes would despise me.

³² For He is not a man like me, that I can answer Him, that we can take each other to court.

³³ Nor is there a mediator between us, to lay his hand upon us both.

³⁴ Let Him remove His rod from me, so that His terror will no longer frighten me.

³⁵ Then I would speak without fear of Him. But as it is, I am on my own.