Job Replies: There Is No Mediator
9 Then Job answered:
2 “Indeed, I know that this is so,
but how can a mortal be just before God?(A)
3 If one wished to contend with him,
one could not answer him once in a thousand.(B)
4 He is wise in heart and mighty in strength;
who has resisted him and succeeded?(C)
5 He removes mountains, and they do not know it
when he overturns them in his anger;
6 he shakes the earth out of its place,
and its pillars tremble;(D)
7 he commands the sun, and it does not rise;
he seals up the stars;
8 he alone stretched out the heavens
and trampled the waves of the Sea;[a](E)
9 he made the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;(F)
10 he does great things beyond understanding
and marvelous things without number.(G)
11 Look, he passes by me, and I do not see him;
he moves on, but I do not perceive him.(H)
12 He snatches away; who can stop him?
Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’(I)
13 “God will not turn back his anger;
the helpers of Rahab bowed beneath him.(J)
14 How then can I answer him,
choosing my words with him?
15 Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him;
I must appeal to my accuser for my right.(K)
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;(L)
18 he will not let me get my breath
but fills me with bitterness.(M)
19 If it is a contest of strength, he is the strong one!
If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?[b]
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.(N)
22 It is all one; therefore I say,
‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’(O)
23 When disaster brings sudden death,
he mocks at the calamity[c] of the innocent.(P)
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?(Q)
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.(R)
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 labor in vain?(S)
30 If I wash myself with soap
and cleanse my hands with lye,(T)
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.(U)
33 There is no mediator[d] between us,
who might lay his hand on us both.(V)
34 If he would take his rod away from me
and not let dread of him terrify me,(W)
35 then I would speak without fear of him,
for I know I am not what I am thought to be.[e]
Footnotes
- 9.8Or trampled the back of the sea dragon
- 9.19Compare Gk: Heb me
- 9.23Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 9.33Another reading is Would that there were a mediator
- 9.35Cn: Heb for I am not so in myself
Cross references
- 9.2 : Rom 3.20
- 9.3 : Ps 143.2
- 9.4 : 2 Chr 13.12; Job 36.5
- 9.6 : Job 26.11; Isa 2.19, 21; Hag 2.6; Heb 12.26
- 9.8 : Gen 1.6; Ps 104.2, 3
- 9.9 : Gen 1.16; Job 38.31; Am 5.8
- 9.10 : Ps 71.15
- 9.11 : Job 23.8, 9; 35.14
- 9.12 : Job 11.10; Isa 45.9; Rom 9.20
- 9.13 : Job 26.12; Isa 30.7
- 9.15 : Job 8.5; 10.15
- 9.17 : Job 2.3; 16.12, 14
- 9.18 : Job 27.2
- 9.21 : Job 1.1; 7.16
- 9.22 : Eccl 9.2, 3; Ezek 21.3
- 9.23 : Ps 64.4; Heb 11.36; 1 Pet 1.7
- 9.24 : Job 10.3; 12.6, 17
- 9.26 : Hab 1.8
- 9.29 : v 20
- 9.30 : Jer 2.22
- 9.32 : v 3; Ps 143.2; Eccl 6.10; Rom 9.20
- 9.33 : 1 Sam 2.25
- 9.34 : Job 13.21; Ps 39.10