¹ Then Job answered and said,

² I know [it is] so of a truth, but how shall a man be justified with God?

³ If he desires to contend with him, he will not be able to answer him one [thing] of a thousand.

⁴ [He is] wise in heart and mighty in strength; who has hardened [himself] against him and remained in peace?

⁵ Who uproots the mountains in his anger, and they know not who overturned them.

⁶ Who removes the earth out of her place and causes her pillars to tremble.

⁷ Who commands the sun, and it rises not; and seals up the stars.

⁸ He alone extends the heavens and walks upon the waves of the sea.

⁹ He who made Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the secret places of the south.

¹⁰ He who does great things past finding out, and wonders without number.

¹¹ Behold, he shall pass before me, and I shall not see him; and he shall pass on, and I shall not understand him.

¹² Behold, he shall take away, who can cause him to restore? Who shall say unto him, What doest thou?

¹³ God will not withdraw his anger, and under him those who help, unto pride are bent over.

¹⁴ How much less shall I answer him [and] choose out my words to [reason] with him?

¹⁵ Who even though I am righteous, [yet] I would not answer, [but] I would make supplication to my judge.

¹⁶ Who if I were to invoke him, and he answered me; [yet] I would not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice.

¹⁷ For he has broken me with a tempest and has multiplied my wounds without cause.

¹⁸ He will not suffer me to take my breath but has filled me with bitterness.

¹⁹ If [we were to speak] of [his] strength, he is certainly strong; and if of [his] judgment, who shall cause us to meet?

²⁰ If I justify myself, my own mouth shall condemn me: [if I say], I [am] perfect, he shall prove me perverse.

²¹ [If] I [say I am] imperfect, I know not my soul; I would condemn my life.

²² One thing remains, that I say, He consumes the perfect and the wicked.

²³ If [it is] the scourge, it slays suddenly, and it does not laugh at the trial of the innocent.

²⁴ The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges; if [it is] not [he who does this then], who is it and where [is] he?

²⁵ Now my days are swifter than a post; they fled away, they never saw good.

²⁶ They are passed away as the ships of Ebeh as the eagle [that] throws himself on the prey.

²⁷ If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness and comfort [myself];

²⁸ I am afraid of all my troubles; I know that thou wilt not hold me guiltless.

²⁹ [If] I am wicked, why then shall I toil in vain?

³⁰ If I wash myself with snow water and make my hands never so clean;

³¹ yet thou shalt plunge me into the pit, and my own clothes shall abhor me.

³² For [he is] not a man, as I [am], [that] I should answer him, [and] we should come together unto judgment.

³³ Neither is there any arbiter between us, [that] might lay his hand upon us both.

³⁴ Let him take his tormentor away from me, and his terror will not perturb me.

³⁵ [Then] I would speak and not fear him, because in this state I am not myself.: