Job

1-2 Yes, I've heard all that before.

But how can a human being win a case against God?

3How can anyone argue with him?

He can ask a thousand questions

that no one could ever answer.+

4God is so wise and powerful;

no one can stand up against him.

5Without warning he moves mountains

and in anger he destroys them.

6God sends earthquakes and shakes the ground;

he rocks the pillars that support the earth.

7 He can keep the sun from rising,

and the stars from shining at night.

8No one helped God spread out the heavens

or trample the sea monster's back.+

9 God hung the stars in the sky—the Dipper,

Orion, the Pleiades, and the stars of the south.

10We cannot understand the great things he does,

and to his miracles there is no end.

11God passes by, but I cannot see him.

12He takes what he wants, and no one can stop him;

no one dares ask him, “What are you doing?”

13God's anger is constant. He crushed his enemies

who helped Rahab,+ the sea monster, oppose him.

14So how can I find words to answer God?

15Though I am innocent, all I can do

is beg for mercy from God my judge.

16Yet even then, if he lets me speak,

I can't believe he would listen to me.

17He sends storms to batter and bruise me

without any reason at all.

18He won't let me catch my breath;

he has filled my life with bitterness.

19Should I try force? Try force on God?

Should I take him to court? Could anyone make him go?+

20I am innocent and faithful, but my words sound guilty,

and everything I say seems to condemn me.

21-22I am innocent, but I no longer care.

I am sick of living. Nothing matters;

innocent or guilty, God will destroy us.

23When an innocent person suddenly dies,

God laughs.

24God gave the world to the wicked.

He made all the judges blind.

And if God didn't do it, who did?

25My days race by, not one of them good.

26My life passes like the swiftest boat,

as fast as an eagle swooping down on a rabbit.

27-28If I smile and try to forget my pain,

all my suffering comes back to haunt me;

I know that God does hold me guilty.

29Since I am held guilty, why should I bother?

30No soap can wash away my sins.

31God throws me into a pit with filth,

and even my clothes are ashamed of me.

32If God were human, I could answer him;

we could go to court to decide our quarrel.

33But there is no one to step between us—

no one to judge both God and me.

34Stop punishing me, God!

Keep your terrors away!

35I am not afraid. I am going to talk

because I know my own heart.