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9:1  Then Job answered and said,
9:2  “Truly I know that it is so, but how can a human being be just before God?
9:3  If he wants to contend with him, he cannot answer him one time in a thousand.
9:4  He is wise in heart and mighty in strength; who has resisted him and succeeded?
9:5  “He is the one who moves mountains, and they do not know how, who overturns them in his anger.
9:6  He is the one who shakes the earth from its place, and its pillars tremble.
9:7  He is the one who commands the sun, and it does not rise, and he seals up the stars.
9:8  He is the one who alone stretches out the heavens and who tramples on the waves of the sea.
9:9  He is the one who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.
9:10  He is the one who does great things beyond understanding and marvelous things beyond number.
9:11  “If he passes by me, I would not see him; and if he should move on, I would not recognize him.
9:12  If he would snatch away, who could turn him? Who could say to him, ‘What are you doing?’
9:13  God will not turn back his anger; beneath him the helpers of Rahab bow.
9:14  How much less can I myself answer him? How can I choose my words with him,
9:15  whom I cannot answer, even though I am righteous? From my judge I must implore grace.
9:16  If I summon him, and he should answer me, I do not believe that he will listen to my voice—
9:17  who crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause.
9:18  He will not allow me to catch my breath; rather, he will fill me with bitterness.
9:19  If it is a matter of strength, look, he is mighty. But if it is a matter of justice, who can summon me?
9:20  Even though I am righteous, my mouth will condemn me; even though I am blameless, yet it would pronounce me guilty.
9:21  “I am blameless; I do not care about myself; I loathe my life.
9:22  It is all one; therefore I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’
9:23  When the whip kills suddenly, he mocks at the despair of the innocent.
9:24  The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the face of its judge— if it is not he, then who is it?
9:25  “And my days are swifter than a runner; they flee away; they do not see good.
9:26  They go by like papyrus skiffs, like an eagle swoops down on its prey.
9:27  Though I say, ‘I will forget my complaint; I will change my expression, and I will rejoice,’
9:28  I become afraid of all my sufferings; I know that you do not consider me innocent.
9:29  If I shall be declared guilty, why then should I labor in vain?
9:30  If I wash myself with soap, and I cleanse my hands with lye,
9:31  then you plunge me into the slime pit, and my clothes abhor me.
9:32  “For he is not a mortal like me that I can answer him, that we can come to trial together.
9:33  There is no arbiter between us that he might lay his hand on both of us.
9:34  May he remove his rod from me, and let his dread not terrify me;
9:35  then I would speak and not fear him, for in myself I am not fearful.