|
[1] Then Job answered and said,
[2] I know of a truth that it is so: for how shall a mortal man be just before the Lord?
[3] For if he would enter into judgment with him, God would not hearken to him, so that he should answer to one of his charges of a thousand.
[4] For he is wise in mind, and mighty, and great: who has hardened himself against him and endured?
[5] Who wears out the mountains, and men know it not: who overturns them in anger.
[6] Who shakes the earth under heaven from its foundations, and its pillars totter.
[7] Who commands the sun, and it rises not; and he seals up the stars.
[8] Who alone has stretched out the heavens, and walks on the sea as on firm ground.
[9] Who makes Pleias, and Hesperus, and Arcturus, and the chambers of the south.
[10] Who does great and unsearchable things; glorious also and excellent things, innumerable.
[11] If ever he should go beyond me, I shall not see him: if he should pass by me, neither thus have I known it.
[12] If he would take away, who shall turn him back? or who shall say to him, What hast thou done?
[13] For if he has turned away his anger, the whales under heaven have stooped under him.
[14] Oh then that he would hearken to me, or judge my cause.
[15] For though I be righteous, he will not hearken to me: I will intreat his judgment.
[16] And if I should call and he should not hearken, I cannot believe that he has listened to my voice.
[17] Let him not crush me with a dark storm: but he has made by bruises many without cause.
[18] For he suffers me not to take breath, but he has filled me with bitterness.
[19] For indeed he is strong in power: who then shall resist his judgment?
[20] For though I should seem righteous, my mouth will be profane: and though I should seem blameless, I shall be proved perverse.
[21] For even if I have sinned, I know it not in my soul: but my life is taken away.
[22] Wherefore I said, Wrath slays the great and mighty man.
[23] For the worthless die, but the righteous are laughed to scorn.
[24] For they are delivered into the hands of the unrighteous man: he covers the faces of the judges of the earth: but if it be not he, who is it?
[25] But my life is swifter than a post: my days have fled away, and they knew it not.
[26] Or again, is there a trace of their path left by ships? or is there one of the flying eagle as it seeks its prey?
[27] And if I should say, I will forget to speak, I will bow down my face and groan;
[28] I quake in all my limbs, for I know that thou wilt not leave me alone as innocent.
[29] But since I am ungodly, why have I not died?
[30] For if I should wash myself with snow, and purge myself with pure hands,
[31] thou hadst thoroughly plunged me in filth, and my garment had abhorred me.
[32] For thou art not man like me, with whom I could contend, that we might come together to judgment.
[33] Would that he our mediator were present, and a reprover, and one who should hear the cause between both.
[34] Let him remove his rod from me, and let not his fear terrify me:
[35] so shall I not be afraid, but I will speak: for I am not thus conscious of guilt.
|