Job 9 — The Holy Bible

Job Has No Mediator

Job 9, verse 1. Then Job answered and said:

“I know that is true,

But how can a mortal man be righteous before the Lord?

If he should wish to enter into judgment with Him,

The Lord would not listen to him,

For he could not answer to one out of a thousand of His charges.

He is wise in mind and mighty and great.

Who has hardened himself against Him and endured?

He who makes the mountains old, and men do not know it;

He who overturns them in His wrath;

He who shakes the earth under heaven from its foundations,

And its pillars tremble;

He who commands the sun, and it does not rise;

He who seals off the stars;

He who alone stretches out heaven;

He who walks on the sea as on firm ground;

He who makes Pleiades, Hesperus, and Arcturus,

And the chambers of the south;

He who does great and unsearchable things,

Glorious and marvelous things without number.

If He goes beyond me, I do not see Him;

If He passes by me, I do not perceive Him;

If He takes away, who can turn Him back?

Who can say to Him, ‘What have You done?’

For if He turns away His wrath,

The great sea creatures under heaven lie prostrate beneath Him.

“Would then that He would hear me, or judge my words.

For though I be righteous, He will not listen to me.

I will entreat His judgment.

If I should call, and He hears me,

I would not believe He is listening to me.

Let Him not destroy me with darkness,

But He has caused my great destruction to no purpose.

For He will not allow me to draw breath,

But has filled me with bitterness.

For if He is strong in power,

Who then can resist His judgment?

For though I were righteous, my mouth will be impious;

And though I were blameless, I will be perverse.

“If I am ungodly, I do not know it in my soul,

But my life is taken away.

Therefore I said, ‘Wrath destroys the great and the mighty.’

The wrongdoers die violently,

But the righteous are laughed to scorn.

For they are delivered into the hands of the ungodly man.

He covers the faces of the judges of the earth.

If it is not He, who else could it be?

“Now my life passes swifter than a runner;

My days have fled away, and they do not see it.

Do the ships leave a mark of their path?

Or does a flying eagle leave a trace of its soaring as it seeks its prey?

If I say, ‘I will forget to speak,’

I will bow down my face and groan.

I shake with fear in all my limbs;

I know You will not leave me as innocent.

But since I am ungodly, why have I not died?

If I should wash myself with snow

And cleanse myself with pure hands,

You have fully immersed me in filth,

And my garment detests me.

“For You are not a man, as I am,

With whom I could contend,

That we should go to judgment together.

Would that we had a mediator who would cross-examine

And hear the case between us.

Let Him remove the rod from me,

And do not let the fear of Him distress me.

Then I will not be afraid, but will speak,

For I am not conscious of any guilt.