Job 9

Then Job replied to Bildad and the others. He said, 2 “I certainly know that what you have said is true. But a person can not prove that he has done the right thing {and that God should not punish him}. 3 If someone wanted to argue with God about that, God would ask him many questions and that person would not be able to answer any of them! \* 4 God thinks very deeply and he is very powerful. No one who has tried to argue against him has ever been able to win. 5 God moves mountains {in earthquakes} without anyone knowing in advance what he is going to do. God knocks down mountains when he is angry. 6 God causes earthquakes far below the surface of the earth that shake the ground and make it move. \* 7 On some days, God makes it so cloudy that people can not see the sun in the sky. On some nights, God makes it so cloudy that people can not see the stars shining. 8 God created the sky all by himself. God defeated the forces of chaos {so that he could make an orderly universe}. 9 God arranged the stars in the sky to make constellations such as the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades. God arranged stars into many other constellations as well. \* 10 God does amazing things that people can not understand. God does more marvelous things than people are able to count. 11 If God passed by where I was, I would not be able to see him. Yes, he might be going by, but I would not notice him. 12 If God wants to take something away, no one can stop him from doing that. No one can require God to defend what he is doing. \* 13 God would continue to be angry {even if someone tried to calm him down}. {No one can oppose him;} he {even} defeated the forces of Rahab, the great sea monster. 14 So I could hardly think of the right words to say in order to argue a case against God! 15 Even if I were innocent, I would not be able to argue a case against him. All I could do would be to ask God, as my judge, to be merciful to me. \* 16 Even if he agreed to hear my case, I would not believe that he was genuinely considering my arguments. 17 He keeps causing troubles that batter me. He hurts me many times for no good reason. 18 He causes me to suffer all the time. It is as if he will not even let me get my breath again {before he causes the next disaster}. \* 19 Suppose I did make a case against him. And suppose the winner would be the one who was stronger. Then he would win, because he is far stronger than I am. And it would not matter who was right, since no one could make him obey what a judge decided. 20 Even though I was innocent, he would find grounds in what I said to punish me. Even though I had not done anything wrong, he would still decide, based on what I said, that I was guilty. \* 21 I have not done anything wrong, {but that does not matter anymore because} I do not care what happens to me. I do not care whether I live or die. 22 God punishes everyone the same way. As I have been saying, God destroys everyone whether they have done wrong or not. 23 When people experience disaster and it causes them to die suddenly, God laughs when he sees them suffer, even if they are innocent. 24 God has allowed wicked people to control what happens to everyone else. It is as though God has caused judges not to be able to judge fairly. If it is not God who has done that, who, then, has done it? \* 25 I am approaching the end of my life more quickly than a messenger runs to bring news. It is as if the days of my life are running away from me. Good things do not happen to me. 26 My life is going by very rapidly, as fast as a sailing boat made from reeds, as fast as an eagle swooping down to seize an animal. \* 27 If I decide that I will just forget what I am complaining about, if I decide to stop looking sad and try to be cheerful, 28 I still become afraid again because I know that God does not consider me innocent and so I think that he will punish me. 29 He will condemn me anyway, so why should I keep trying in vain to defend myself? \* 30 If I washed my body with pure water from melted snow and cleansed my hands with strong soap {to show how innocent I am}, 31 God would just throw me into a filthy pit {to show how guilty he considers me to be}. My body would become so dirty that it would be as if my own clothes did not want to be on it! \* 32 God is not a human, as I am, so I could not refute him to prove that I am innocent if we went together to have a trial in a courtroom. 33 There is no one to mediate, no one who has authority over both of us. \* 34 There is no one who could keep God from causing me to suffer, who could keep God from doing terrifying things that frighten me. 35 {If someone could protect me and judge between us,} I would declare that I am innocent without being afraid of God. But I can not do that now. \*