Then Ayub answered,
2“Truly I know that it is so,
But how can man be just with God?
3If he is pleased to contend with him,
He cannot answer him one time in a thousand.
4God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength:
Who has hardened himself against him, and prospered?
5Who removes the mountains, and they do not know it,
When he overturns them in his anger
6Who shakes the earth out of its place;
Its pillars tremble;
7Who commands the sun, and it does not rise,
And seals up the stars;
8Who alone stretches out the heavens,
Treads on the waves of the sea;
9Who makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades,
And the chambers of the south;
10Who does great things past finding out,
Yes, marvelous things without number.
11Behold, he goes by me, and I do not see him.
He passes on also, but I do not perceive him.
12Behold, 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.
14How much less shall I answer him,
Choose my words to argue with him?
15Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer.
I would make supplication to my judge.
16If I had called, and he had answered me,
Yet would I not believe that he listened to my voice.
17For he breaks me with a tempest,
Multiplies my wounds without cause.
18He will not allow me to take my breath,
But fills me with bitterness.
19If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty!
If of justice, ‘Who,’ says he, ‘will summon me?’
20Though I am righteous, my own mouth shall condemn me.
Though I am blameless, it shall prove me perverse.
21I am blameless. I do not regard myself.
I despise my life.
22“It is all the same. Therefore I say,
He destroys the blameless and the wicked.
23If the scourge kills suddenly,
He will mock at the trial of the innocent.
24The earth is given into the hand of the wicked.
He covers the faces of its judges.
If not he, then who is it?
25“Now my days are swifter than a runner.
They flee away, they see no good,
26They have passed away as the swift ships,
As the eagle that swoops on the prey.
27If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint,
I will put off my sad face, and cheer up;’
28I am afraid of all my sorrows,
I know that you will not hold me innocent.
29I shall be condemned;
Why then do I labour in vain?
30If I wash myself with snow,
And cleanse my hands with lye,
31Yet you will plunge me in the ditch.
My own clothes shall abhor me.
32For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him,
That we should come together in judgment.
33There is no umpire between us,
That might lay his hand on us both.
34Let him take his rod away from me,
Let his terror not make me afraid:
35Then I would speak, and not fear him,
For I am not so in myself.