Job 9 – read and compare multiple versions
Job 9
[1] Then Job answered,
[2] “Truly I know that it is so,
but how can man be just with God?
[3] If he is pleased to contend with him,
he can’t answer him one time in a thousand.
[4] God is wise in heart, and mighty in strength.
Who has hardened himself against him and prospered?
[5] He removes the mountains, and they don’t know it,
when he overturns them in his anger.
[6] He shakes the earth out of its place.
Its pillars tremble.
[7] He commands the sun and it doesn’t rise,
and seals up the stars.
[8] He alone stretches out the heavens,
and treads on the waves of the sea.
[9] He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades,
and the rooms of the south.
[10] He does great things past finding out;
yes, marvelous things without number.
[11] Behold, he goes by me, and I don’t see him.
He passes on also, but I don’t perceive him.
[12] Behold, he snatches away.
Who can hinder him?
Who will ask him, ‘What are you doing?’ [13] “God will not withdraw his anger.
The helpers of Rahab stoop under him.
[14] How much less will I answer him,
and choose my words to argue with him?
[15] Though I were righteous, yet I wouldn’t answer him.
I would make supplication to my judge.
[16] If I had called, and he had answered me,
yet I wouldn’t believe that he listened to my voice.
[17] For he breaks me with a storm,
and multiplies my wounds without cause.
[18] He will not allow me to catch my breath,
but fills me with bitterness.
[19] If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty!
If of justice, ‘Who,’ says he, ‘will summon me?’
[20] Though I am righteous, my own mouth will condemn me.
Though I am blameless, it will prove me perverse.
[21] I am blameless.
I don’t respect myself.
I despise my life. [22] “It is all the same.
Therefore I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked.
[23] If the scourge kills suddenly,
he will mock 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 not he, then who is it? [25] “Now my days are swifter than a runner.
They flee away. They see no good.
[26] They have passed away as the swift ships,
as the eagle that swoops on the prey.
[27] If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint,
I will put off my sad face, and cheer up,’
[28] I am afraid of all my sorrows.
I know that you will not hold me innocent.
[29] I will be condemned.
Why then do I labor in vain?
[30] If I wash myself with snow,
and cleanse my hands with lye,
[31] yet you will plunge me in the ditch.
My own clothes will abhor me.
[32] For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him,
that we should come together in judgment.
[33] There is no umpire between us,
that might lay his hand on us both.
[34] Let him take his rod away from me.
Let his terror not make me afraid;
[35] then I would speak, and not fear him,
for I am not so in myself.
[2] “Truly I know that it is so,
but how can man be just with God?
[3] If he is pleased to contend with him,
he can’t answer him one time in a thousand.
[4] God is wise in heart, and mighty in strength.
Who has hardened himself against him and prospered?
[5] He removes the mountains, and they don’t know it,
when he overturns them in his anger.
[6] He shakes the earth out of its place.
Its pillars tremble.
[7] He commands the sun and it doesn’t rise,
and seals up the stars.
[8] He alone stretches out the heavens,
and treads on the waves of the sea.
[9] He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades,
and the rooms of the south.
[10] He does great things past finding out;
yes, marvelous things without number.
[11] Behold, he goes by me, and I don’t see him.
He passes on also, but I don’t perceive him.
[12] Behold, he snatches away.
Who can hinder him?
Who will ask him, ‘What are you doing?’ [13] “God will not withdraw his anger.
The helpers of Rahab stoop under him.
[14] How much less will I answer him,
and choose my words to argue with him?
[15] Though I were righteous, yet I wouldn’t answer him.
I would make supplication to my judge.
[16] If I had called, and he had answered me,
yet I wouldn’t believe that he listened to my voice.
[17] For he breaks me with a storm,
and multiplies my wounds without cause.
[18] He will not allow me to catch my breath,
but fills me with bitterness.
[19] If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty!
If of justice, ‘Who,’ says he, ‘will summon me?’
[20] Though I am righteous, my own mouth will condemn me.
Though I am blameless, it will prove me perverse.
[21] I am blameless.
I don’t respect myself.
I despise my life. [22] “It is all the same.
Therefore I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked.
[23] If the scourge kills suddenly,
he will mock 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 not he, then who is it? [25] “Now my days are swifter than a runner.
They flee away. They see no good.
[26] They have passed away as the swift ships,
as the eagle that swoops on the prey.
[27] If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint,
I will put off my sad face, and cheer up,’
[28] I am afraid of all my sorrows.
I know that you will not hold me innocent.
[29] I will be condemned.
Why then do I labor in vain?
[30] If I wash myself with snow,
and cleanse my hands with lye,
[31] yet you will plunge me in the ditch.
My own clothes will abhor me.
[32] For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him,
that we should come together in judgment.
[33] There is no umpire between us,
that might lay his hand on us both.
[34] Let him take his rod away from me.
Let his terror not make me afraid;
[35] then I would speak, and not fear him,
for I am not so in myself.