Job 9 · Clearspring

Job: How Can I Contend with God?

¹Then Job answered:+ ²“Yes, I know that it is so, but how can a mortal be righteous before God?+ ³If one wished to contend with God, he could not answer Him one time out of a thousand.+ ⁴God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has resisted Him and prospered?+ ⁵He moves mountains without their knowledge and overturns them in His anger.+ ⁶He shakes the earth from its place, so that its foundations tremble.+ ⁷He commands the sun not to shine; He seals off the stars.+ ⁸He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.+ ⁹He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, of the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.+ ¹⁰He does great things beyond searching out, and wonders without number.+ ¹¹Were He to pass by me, I would not see Him; were He to move, I would not recognize Him.+ ¹²If He takes away, who can stop Him? Who dares to ask Him, ‘What are You doing?’+ ¹³God does not restrain His anger; the helpers of Rahab cower beneath Him.+ ¹⁴How then can I answer Him or choose my arguments against Him?+ ¹⁵For even if I were right, I could not answer. I could only beg my Judge for mercy.+ ¹⁶If I summoned Him and He answered me, I do not believe He would listen to my voice.+ ¹⁷For He would crush me with a tempest and multiply my wounds without cause.+ ¹⁸He does not let me catch my breath, but overwhelms me with bitterness.+ ¹⁹If it is a matter of strength, He is indeed mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon Him?+ ²⁰Even if I were righteous, my mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, it would declare me guilty.+ ²¹Though I am blameless, I have no concern for myself; I despise my own life.+ ²²It is all the same, and so I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’+ ²³When the scourge brings sudden death, He mocks the despair of the innocent.+ ²⁴The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; He blindfolds its judges. If it is not He, then who is it?+ ²⁵My days are swifter than a runner; they flee without seeing good.+ ²⁶They sweep by like boats of papyrus, like an eagle swooping down on its prey.+ ²⁷If I were to say, ‘I will forget my complaint and change my expression and smile,’+ ²⁸I would still dread all my sufferings; I know that You will not acquit me.+ ²⁹Since I am already found guilty, why should I labor in vain?+ ³⁰If I should wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye,+ ³¹then You would plunge me into the pit, and even my own clothes would despise me.+ ³²For He is not a man like me, that I can answer Him, that we can take each other to court.+ ³³Nor is there a mediator between us, to lay his hand upon us both.+ ³⁴Let Him remove His rod from me, so that His terror will no longer frighten me.+ ³⁵Then I would speak without fear of Him. But as it is, I am on my own.’’

Job: How Can I Contend with God?

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