1 JOB RESPONDED:

2 »Truly I know it is so, but how can a man be righteous before God?

3 »If one wished to argue with God, he could not answer or respond to him once in a thousand times.

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 do not know when he overturns them in his anger!

6 »He shakes the earth out of its place and its pillars tremble.

7 »He commands the sun and it does not rise! He seals off the stars.

8 »He alone spreads out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.

9 »He made the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades and the chambers of the south.

10 »He does great things beyond our understanding, yes, marvelous wonders without number.

11 »He goes by me and I do not see. He moves past and I do not perceive him.

12 »He takes away and who can hinder God? Who can say to God: ‘What are you doing?’

13 »God will not withdraw his anger. The allies of the proud lie thrown down beneath him.

14 »How then can I answer God and choose my words in order to reason with him?

15 »Though I was righteous, I could not answer him! I would beg mercy of my Judge.

16 »If I called and he answered me, I would not believe that God was listening to my voice.

17 »He crushes me with a tempest. He multiplies my wounds without cause.

18 »He will not allow me to catch my breath. Yet he fills me with bitterness.

19 »If I speak of strength and justice, he is strong! Who will appoint my day in court?

20 »Though I was righteous, my own mouth would condemn me. If I were blameless it would prove me perverse.

21 »I am blameless! Yet I do not know myself. And I despise my life.

22 »It is all one thing. Therefore I say: God destroys the blameless and the wicked.

23 »If the scourge slays suddenly, God laughs at the plight of the innocent.

24 »The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If it is not God, who else could it be?

25 »My days are swifter than a runner! They flee away and see no good.

26 »They pass by like swift ships, like an eagle swooping on its prey.

27 »If I say: ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face and wear a smile,

28 »I am afraid of all my suffering and I know that God will not hold me innocent.

29 »If I am condemned, why then do I labor in vain?

30 »If I wash myself with snow water, and cleanse my hands with soap,

31 »Yet you will plunge me into the pit, and my own clothes will abhor me.

32 »God is not a man, as I am: That I may answer him and we should go to court together.

33 »Nor is there any mediator between us who may lay his hand on us both.

34 »Let God remove his rod from me. Do not let dread of him terrify me.

35 »I would speak and not respect God. But I cannot do this!