Job: How Can I Contend with God?

1Iob answered, and sayde:

2As for yt I knowe it is so of a treuth, yt a man compared vnto God, can not be iustified.

3Yf he wil argue with him, he shall not be able to answere him vnto one amonge a thousande.

4He is wyse of hert, and mightie in strength. Who euer prospered, that toke parte agaynst him?

5He translateth the moutaynes, or euer they be awarre, & ouerthroweth them in his wrath.

6He remoueth the earth out of hir place, that hir pilers shake withall.

7He commaundeth the Sone, & it ryseth not: he closeth vp the starres, as it were vnder a signet.

8He himself alone spredeth out ye heauens, and goeth vpon the wawes of the see.

9He maketh the waynes of heauen, the Orions, the vij. starres and the secrete places of the south.

10He doth greate thinges, soch as are vnsearcheable, yee and wonders without nombre.

11Yf he came by me, I might not loke vpo him: yf he wente his waye, I shulde not perceaue it.

12Yf he be haisty to take eny thinge awaye, who wil make him restore it agayne? Who wil saye vnto him: what doest thou?

13He is God, whose wrath no man maye with stode: but the proudest of all must stoupe vnder him.

14How shulde I then answere him? or, what wordes shulde I fynde out agaynst him?

15Yee though I be rightuous, yet will I not geue him one worde agayne, but mekely submytte my self to my iudge.

16All be it that I call vpon him, and he heare me, yet am I not sure, yt he hath herde my voyce:

17he troubleth me so with the tempest, and woundeth me out of measure without a cause.

18He will not let my sprete be in rest, but fylleth me wt bytternesse.

19Yf men will speake of strength, he is the stogest of all: yf me will speake of rightousnes, who darre be my recorde?

20yf I will iustifie my self, myne owne mouth shall codemne me: yf I will put forth my self for a perfecte man, he shal proue me a wicked doer:

21For that I shulde be an innocent, my coscience knoweth it not, yee I my self am weery off my life.

22This one thige wil I saye: He destroyeth both the rightuous & vngodly.

23And though he slaye sodenly wt the scourge, yet laugheth he at the punyshment of the innocent.

24As for the worlde, he geueth it ouer in to the power of the wicked, soch as the rulers be, wherof all londes are full. Is it not so? where is there eny, but he is soch one?

25My dayes haue bene more swifte, then a runner: they are gone sodenly, and haue sene no good thinge.

26They are passed awaye, as the shippes that be good vnder sale, and as the Aegle that haisteth to the pray.

27When I am purposed to forget my complayninges to chaunge my countenaunce, and to coforte my self:

28then am I afrayed of all my workes, for I knowe, thou fauourest not an euell doer.

29Yf I be then a wicked one, why haue I laboured in vayne?

30Though I wasshed my self with snowe water, and made myne hondes neuer so clene,

31yet shuldest thou dyppe me in ye myre, & myne owne clothes shulde defyle me.

32For he yt I must geue answere vnto, and with whom I go to lawe, is not a man as I am.

33Nether is there eny dayes man to reproue both the partes, or to laye his hode betwixte vs.

34Let him take his rod awaye fro me, yee let him make me nomore afrayed of him,

35and then shal I answere him without eny feare. For as longe as I am in soch fearfulnesse, I can make no answere: And why?