Job’s Reply to Bildad

1Then Job answered:

2“Truly, I know that this is so.

But how can a human be just before God?

3If someone wishes to contend with him,

he cannot answer him one time in a thousand.

4He is wise in heart and mighty in strength –

who has resisted him and remained safe?

5He who removes mountains suddenly,

who overturns them in his anger;

6he who shakes the earth out of its place

so that its pillars tremble;

7he who commands the sun and it does not shine

and seals up the stars;

8he alone spreads out the heavens,

and treads on the waves of the sea;

9he makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades,

and the constellations of the southern sky;

10he does great and unsearchable things,

and wonderful things without number.

11If he passes by me, I cannot see him,

if he goes by, I cannot perceive him.

12If he snatches away, who can turn him back?

Who dares to say to him, ‘What are you doing?’

13God does not restrain his anger;

under him the helpers of Rahab lie crushed.

The Impossibility of Facing God in Court

14“How much less, then, can I answer him

and choose my words to argue with him!

15Although I am innocent,

I could not answer him;

I could only plead with my judge for mercy.

16If I summoned him, and he answered me,

I would not believe

that he would be listening to my voice –

17he who crushes me with a tempest,

and multiplies my wounds for no reason.

18He does not allow me to recover my breath,

for he fills me with bitterness.

19If it is a matter of strength,

most certainly he is the strong one!

And if it is a matter of justice,

he will say, ‘Who will summon me?’

20Although I am innocent,

my mouth would condemn me;

although I am blameless,

it would declare me perverse.

21I am blameless. I do not know myself.

I despise my life.

Accusation of God’s Justice

22“It is all one! That is why I say,

‘He destroys the blameless and the guilty.’

23If a scourge brings sudden death,

he mocks at the despair of the innocent.

24If a land has been given

into the hand of a wicked man,

he covers the faces of its judges;

if it is not he, then who is it?

Renewed Complaint

25“My days are swifter than a runner,

they speed by without seeing happiness.

26They glide by like reed boats,

like an eagle that swoops down on its prey.

27If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint,

I will change my expression and be cheerful,’

28I dread all my sufferings,

for I know that you do not hold me blameless.

29If I am guilty,

why then weary myself in vain?

30If I wash myself with snow water,

and make my hands clean with lye,

31then you plunge me into a slimy pit

and my own clothes abhor me.

32For he is not a human being like I am,

that I might answer him,

that we might come together in judgment.

33Nor is there an arbiter between us,

who might lay his hand on us both,

34who would take his rod away from me

so that his terror would not make me afraid.

35Then would I speak and not fear him,

but it is not so with me.