1. Then Job answered,
2. “Truly I know that it is so,but how can man be just with God?
3. If he is pleased to contend with him,he can’t answer him one time in a thousand.
4. God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength:who has hardened himself against him, and prospered?
5. He removes the mountains, and they don’t know it,when he overturns them in his anger.
6. He shakes the earth out of its place.Its pillars tremble.
7. He commands the sun, and it doesn’t rise,and seals up the stars.
8. He alone stretches out the heavens,and treads on the waves of the sea.
9. He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades,and the rooms of the south.
10. He does great things past finding out;yes, marvellous things without number.
11. Behold, he goes by me, and I don’t see him.He passes on also, but I don’t perceive him.
12. Behold, he snatches away.Who can hinder him?Who will ask him, ‘What are you doing?’
13. “God will not withdraw his anger.The helpers of Rahab stoop under him.
14. How much less shall I answer him,And choose my words to argue with him?
15. Though I were righteous, yet I wouldn’t answer him.I would make supplication to my judge.
16. If I had called, and he had answered me,yet I wouldn’t believe that he listened to my voice.
17. For he breaks me with a storm,and multiplies my wounds without cause.
18. He will not allow me to catch my breath,but fills me with bitterness.
19. If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty!If of justice, ‘Who,’ says he, ‘will summon me?’
20. Though I am righteous, my own mouth shall condemn me.Though I am blameless, it shall prove me perverse.