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Job Says There Is No Arbitrator between God and Man

¹ Then Job answered and said,

² "Yes, I know it is true.
But how can a mortal ^(C1)man be right before God?

³ "If one should want to ^(C1)contend or dispute with Him,
He could not answer Him once in a thousand times.

⁴ "God is ^(C1)wise in heart and ^(C2)mighty in strength;
Who has ever ^(C3)defied or challenged Him and remained unharmed?

⁵ "It is God ^(C1)who removes the mountains, and they do not know it,
When He overturns them in His anger;

⁶ Who ^(C1)shakes the earth out of its place,
And its ^(C2)pillars tremble;

⁷ Who commands the ^(C1)sun, and it does not shine;
Who seals up the stars from view;

⁸ Who alone ^(C1)stretches out the heavens
And ^(C2)tramples down the ^(F1)waves of the sea;

⁹ Who made the constellations the ^(C1)Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades,
And the vast starry ^(C2)spaces of the south;

¹⁰ Who ^(C1)does great things, beyond understanding, unfathomable,
Yes, marvelous and wondrous things without number.

¹¹ "Behold, He passes by me, and ^(C1)I do not see Him;
He moves past me, but I do not perceive Him.

¹² "Behold, He snatches away; who can ^(C1)restrain or turn Him back?
Who will say to Him, '^(C2)What are You doing?'

¹³ "God will not turn back His anger;
The proud helpers of ^(C1)Rahab the arrogant monster of the sea bow under Him.

¹⁴ "How can ^(C1)I answer Him and plead my case,
Choosing my words to reason with Him?

¹⁵ "For ^(C1)though I were righteous, I could not answer.
I must ^(C2)appeal for mercy to my Opponent and Judge.

¹⁶ "If I called and He answered me,
I could not believe that He was listening to my voice.

¹⁷ "For He ^(C1)bruises me with a tempest
And multiplies my wounds without cause.

¹⁸ "He will ^(C1)not allow me to catch my breath,
But fills and saturates me with ^(C2)bitterness.

¹⁹ "If it is a matter of strength and power, ^(C1)behold, He is mighty!
And if of justice, who can summon and challenge Him?

²⁰ "^(C1)Though I am innocent and in the right, my own mouth would ^(C2)pronounce me guilty;
Though I am blameless, He would denounce me as guilty.

²¹ "Though I am ^(C1)blameless,
I do not care about myself;
I ^(C2)despise my life.

²² "It is all one; therefore I say,
'He ^(C1)destroys both the blameless and the wicked.'

²³ "When His scourge kills suddenly,
He ^(C1)mocks at the despair of the innocent.

²⁴ "The earth ^(C1)is given into the hands of the wicked;
He ^(C2)covers the faces of its judges so that they are blind to justice.
If it is not He, then who is it that is responsible for all this injustice?

²⁵ "Now ^(C1)my days are swifter than a runner;
They vanish, ^(C2)they see no good.

²⁶ "They pass by like the swift ^(C1)boats made of reeds,
Like an ^(C2)eagle that swoops down on its prey.

²⁷ "If I say, 'I will forget ^(C1)my complaint,
I will leave off my sad appearance, and be cheerful and brighten up,'

²⁸ I am ^(C1)afraid of all my pains and worries yet to come;
I know that ^(C2)You will not acquit me and leave me unpunished.

²⁹ "I am ^(C1)accounted wicked and held guilty;
Why then should I labor in vain to appear innocent?

³⁰ "If I were to ^(C1)wash myself with snow
And cleanse ^(C2)my hands with lye,

³¹ You would still plunge me into the pit,
And my own clothes would hate me and refuse to cover my foul body.

³² "For ^(C1)God is not a mere man, as I am, that ^(C2)I may answer Him,
That we may go to court and judgment together.

³³ "There is no ^(C1)arbitrator between us,
Who could lay his hand upon us both would that there were. ^(VR1)

³⁴ "Let Him ^(C1)take His rod away from me,
And let not the dread and fear of Him terrify me.

³⁵ "Then ^(C1)I would speak my defense and not fear Him;
But I am not like that in myself.