Job: How Can I Contend with God?

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,

he could not answer Him one time out of a thousand.

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;

He seals off^* the stars.

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, who can stop Him?

Who dares to ask Him, ‘What are You doing?’

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 Him?

²⁰ Even if I were righteous, my mouth would condemn me;

if I were blameless, it 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 snow

and cleanse my hands with lye,

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.