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9:1  Then Job answered:
9:2  Yes, I know what you’ve said is true, but how can a person be justified before God?
9:3  If one wanted to take him to court, he could not answer God once in a thousand times.
9:4  God is wise and all-powerful. Who has opposed him and come out unharmed?
9:5  He removes mountains without their knowledge, overturning them in his anger.
9:6  He shakes the earth from its place so that its pillars tremble.
9:7  He commands the sun not to shine and seals off the stars.
9:8  He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.
9:9  He makes the stars: the Bear, Orion, the Pleiades, and the constellations of the southern sky.
9:10  He does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number.
9:11  If he passed by me, I wouldn’t see him; if he went by, I wouldn’t recognize him.
9:12  If he snatches something, who can stop him? Who can ask him, “What are you doing?”
9:13  God does not hold back his anger; Rahab’s assistants cringe in fear beneath him!
9:14  How then can I answer him or choose my arguments against him?
9:15  Even if I were in the right, I could not answer. I could only beg my Judge for mercy.
9:16  If I summoned him and he answered me, I do not believe he would pay attention to what I said.
9:17  He batters me with a whirlwind and multiplies my wounds without cause.
9:18  He doesn’t let me catch my breath but fills me with bitter experiences.
9:19  If it is a matter of strength, look, he is the powerful one! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?
9:20  Even if I were in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, my mouth would declare me guilty.
9:21  Though I am blameless, I no longer care about myself; I renounce my life.
9:22  It is all the same. Therefore I say, “He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.”
9:23  When catastrophe brings sudden death, he mocks the despair of the innocent.
9:24  The earth is handed over to the wicked; he blindfolds its judges. If it isn’t he, then who is it?
9:25  My days fly by faster than a runner; they flee without seeing any good.
9:26  They sweep by like boats made of papyrus, like an eagle swooping down on its prey.
9:27  If I said, “I will forget my complaint, change my expression, and smile,”
9:28  I would still live in terror of all my pains. I know you will not acquit me.
9:29  Since I will be found guilty, why should I struggle in vain?
9:30  If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye,
9:31  then you dip me in a pit of mud, and my own clothes despise me!
9:32  For he is not a man like me, that I can answer him, that we can take each other to court.
9:33  There is no mediator between us, to lay his hand on both of us.
9:34  Let him take his rod away from me so his terror will no longer frighten me.
9:35  Then I would speak and not fear him. But that is not the case; I am on my own.