Job 9

¹⁷‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker?

²⁰Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.

²Do not bring Your servant into judgment, for no one alive is righteous before You.

⁴How then can a man be just before God? How can one born of woman be pure?

⁴⁶When they sin against You—for there is no one who does not sin—and You become angry with them and deliver them to an enemy who takes them as captives to his own land, whether far or near,

³Do You open Your eyes to one like this? Will You bring him into judgment before You?

⁴Who can bring out clean from unclean? No one!

²I will say to God: Do not condemn me! Let me know why You prosecute me.

²“Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Let him who argues with God give an answer.”

²⁰Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and He knows all things.

⁸If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

¹²Who can discern his own errors? Cleanse me from my hidden faults.

²⁰But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?”

⁵Indeed, God is mighty, but He despises no one; He is mighty in strength of understanding.

²⁰Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us,

³³O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!

¹⁷And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. Then I will gain honor by means of Pharaoh and all his army and chariots and horsemen.

¹⁸The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I am honored through Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”

¹⁹If it is a matter of strength, He is indeed mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon Him?

²⁴Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you unblemished in His glorious presence, with great joy—

²⁵to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord before all time, and now, and for all eternity. Amen.

¹¹There will be great earthquakes, famines, and pestilences in various places, along with fearful sights and great signs from heaven.

⁵¹At that moment the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked, and the rocks were split.

¹⁰The mountains saw You and quaked; torrents of water swept by. The deep roared with its voice and lifted its hands on high.

¹³And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand were killed in the quake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

¹⁸And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake the likes of which had not occurred since men were upon the earth—so mighty was the great quake.

¹⁹The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. And God remembered Babylon the great and gave her the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath.

⁸the earth shook and the heavens poured down rain before God, the One on Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.

⁶For this is what the Lord of Hosts says: “Once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land.

³When the earth and all its dwellers quake, it is I who bear up its pillars. Selah

²⁶At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth, but heaven as well.”

¹¹The foundations of heaven quake, astounded at His rebuke.

²¹They will flee to caverns in the rocks and crevices in the cliffs, away from the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of His majesty, when He rises to shake the earth.

⁴Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.

⁵Who fixed its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched a measuring line across it?

¹⁰For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The rising sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.

⁹And in that day, declares the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the daytime.

²⁵There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among the nations, bewildered by the roaring of the sea and the surging of the waves.

²⁶Men will faint from fear and anxiety over what is coming upon the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

⁷He seals up the hand of every man, so that all men may know His work.

²⁹Immediately after the tribulation of those days: ‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’

¹⁹Where is the way to the home of light? Do you know where darkness resides,

²⁰so you can lead it back to its border? Do you know the paths to its home?

²⁴Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer who formed you from the womb: “I am the Lord, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who by Myself spread out the earth,

²²He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth; its dwellers are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

²He wraps Himself in light as with a garment; He stretches out the heavens like a tent,

³laying the beams of His chambers in the waters above, making the clouds His chariot, walking on the wings of the wind.

¹⁸can you, like Him, spread out the skies, as strong as a mirror of bronze?

¹This is the burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel. Thus declares the Lord, who stretches out the heavens and lays the foundation of the earth, who forms the spirit of man within him:

¹¹Thus you are to tell them: “These gods, who have made neither the heavens nor the earth, will perish from this earth and from under these heavens.”

⁸He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth—the Lord is His name—

¹⁶God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. And He made the stars as well.

³¹Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion?

³²Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear and her cubs?

⁴He determines the number of the stars; He calls them each by name.

¹³From there we weighed anchor and came to Rhegium. After one day, a south wind came up, and on the second day we arrived at Puteoli.

¹³He waters the mountains from His chambers; the earth is satisfied by the fruit of His works.

⁹the One who does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number.

¹⁸Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds.

²⁰Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us,

³³O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!

²I am pleased to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me.

³How great are His signs, how mighty His wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; His dominion endures from generation to generation.

⁴He alone does great wonders. His loving devotion endures forever.

⁸If I go east, He is not there, and if I go west, I cannot find Him.

⁹When He is at work in the north, I cannot behold Him; when He turns to the south, I cannot see Him.

¹⁴How much less, then, when you say that you do not see Him, that your case is before Him and you must wait for Him,

¹⁹Your path led through the sea, Your way through the mighty waters, but Your footprints were not to be found.

¹⁶He alone is immortal and dwells in unapproachable light. No one has ever seen Him, nor can anyone see Him. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.

¹⁰If He comes along to imprison you, or convenes a court, who can stop Him?

⁹Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker—one clay pot among many. Does the clay ask the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?

¹³But He is unchangeable, and who can oppose Him? He does what He desires.

³⁴“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?”

³⁵All the peoples of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does as He pleases with the army of heaven and the peoples of the earth. There is no one who can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”

²⁹But when He remains silent, who can condemn Him? When He hides His face, who can see Him? Yet He watches over both man and nation,

¹⁰You crushed Rahab like a carcass; You scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm.

¹²By His power He stirred the sea; by His understanding He shattered Rahab.

⁹Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord. Wake up as in days past, as in generations of old. Was it not You who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced through the dragon?

⁷Egypt’s help is futile and empty; therefore I have called her Rahab Who Sits Still.

⁶But He gives us more grace. This is why it says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

⁷Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

²Yet He too is wise and brings disaster; He does not call back His words. He will rise up against the house of the wicked and against the allies of evildoers.

³But the Egyptians are men, not God; their horses are flesh, not spirit. When the Lord stretches out His hand, the helper will stumble, and the one he helps will fall; both will perish together.

⁴You have said, ‘My doctrine is sound, and I am pure in Your sight.’

⁵But if only God would speak and open His lips against you,

¹⁹how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth!

³If one wished to contend with God, he could not answer Him one time out of a thousand.

⁷Then an upright man could reason with Him, and I would be delivered forever from my Judge.

⁴I would plead my case before Him and fill my mouth with arguments.

²⁷But will God indeed dwell upon the earth? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built.

¹⁵If I am guilty, woe to me! And even if I am righteous, I cannot lift my head. I am full of shame and aware of my affliction.

⁵But if you would earnestly seek God and ask the Almighty for mercy,

²⁷You will pray to Him, and He will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows.

²I will say to God: Do not condemn me! Let me know why You prosecute me.

²³When they heaped abuse on Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats, but entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.

⁸However, if I were you, I would appeal to God and lay my cause before Him—

⁹Moses relayed this message to the Israelites, but on account of their broken spirit and cruel bondage, they did not listen to him.

¹⁸If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

¹⁹But God has surely heard; He has attended to the sound of my prayer.

⁴¹While they were still in disbelief because of their joy and amazement, He asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?”

²⁴If I smiled at them, they did not believe it; the light of my countenance was precious.

⁶In my distress I called upon the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From His temple He heard my voice, and my cry for His help reached His ears.

¹³“Please, my Lord,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all His wonders of which our fathers told us, saying, ‘Has not the Lord brought us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hand of Midian.”

¹⁴He breaks me with wound upon wound; He rushes me like a mighty warrior.

³Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one on earth like him, a man who is blameless and upright, who fears God and shuns evil. He still retains his integrity, even though you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause.”

⁶Would I lie about my case? My wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.’

¹³Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw how intense his suffering was.

¹³Therefore this is what the Lord God says: In My wrath I will release a windstorm, and in My anger torrents of rain and hail will fall with destructive fury.

³Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God would be displayed in him.

¹⁹Will You never look away from me, or leave me alone to swallow my spittle?

¹⁵He has filled me with bitterness; He has intoxicated me with wormwood.

¹¹No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by it.

²⁰Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the bitter of soul,

²“As surely as God lives, who has deprived me of justice—the Almighty, who has embittered my soul—

¹⁸So I say, “My strength has perished, along with my hope from the Lord.”

¹⁹Remember my affliction and wandering, the wormwood and the gall.

³²For He is not a man like me, that I can answer Him, that we can take each other to court.

³³Nor is there a mediator between us, to lay his hand upon us both.

⁴God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has resisted Him and prospered?

²⁵For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.

⁹Do you have an arm like God’s? Can you thunder with a voice like His?

¹⁰Then adorn yourself with majesty and splendor, and clothe yourself with honor and glory.

¹³And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’

¹¹God has spoken once; I have heard this twice: that power belongs to God,

²Do not bring Your servant into judgment, for no one alive is righteous before You.

³⁵‘Job speaks without knowledge; his words lack insight.’

²“Yes, I know that it is so, but how can a mortal be righteous before God?

³If You, O Lord, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?

¹²Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

¹³Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,

⁵For your iniquity instructs your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.

⁶Your own mouth, not mine, condemns you; your own lips testify against you.

¹There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And this man was blameless and upright, fearing God and shunning evil.

²³Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns.

²⁴See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the way everlasting.

⁴My conscience is clear, but that does not vindicate me. It is the Lord who judges me.

²¹Why do You not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For soon I will lie down in the dust; You will seek me, but I will be no more.”

²⁶He who trusts in himself is a fool, but one who walks in wisdom will be safe.

⁹The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

¹⁰I, the Lord, search the heart; I examine the mind to reward a man according to his way, by what his deeds deserve.

¹So I took all this to heart and concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, are in God’s hands. Man does not know what lies ahead, whether love or hate.

²It is the same for all: There is a common fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not. As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner; as it is for the one who makes a vow, so it is for the one who refuses to take a vow.

⁸Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me. Would You now turn and destroy me?

³and tell her that this is what the Lord says: ‘I am against you, and I will draw My sword from its sheath and cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked.

⁴Because I will cut off both the righteous and the wicked, My sword will be unsheathed against everyone from south to north.

²To this He replied, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered this way?

³No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you too will all perish.

¹²From the city, men groan, and the souls of the wounded cry out, yet God charges no one with wrongdoing.

³⁶Still others endured mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.

³⁷They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they were put to death by the sword. They went around in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, oppressed, and mistreated.

¹⁹Or if I send a plague into that land and pour out My wrath upon it through bloodshed, cutting off from it both man and beast,

²⁰then as surely as I live, declares the Lord God, even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they could not deliver their own sons or daughters. Their righteousness could deliver only themselves.

²⁰Behold, God does not reject the blameless, nor will He strengthen the hand of evildoers.

⁷So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and infected Job with terrible boils from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.

²²Yet for Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

³Does it please You to oppress me, to reject the work of Your hands and favor the schemes of the wicked?

³For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

⁴They have no struggle in their death; their bodies are well-fed.

¹Righteous are You, O Lord, when I plead before You. Yet about Your judgments I wish to contend with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?

²You planted them, and they have taken root. They have grown and produced fruit. You are ever on their lips, but far from their hearts.

⁷Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?

⁸Their descendants are established around them, and their offspring before their eyes.

³⁰But David continued up the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went up. His head was covered, and he was walking barefoot. And all the people with him covered their heads and went up, weeping as they went.

⁴The ground is cracked because no rain has fallen on the land. The farmers are ashamed; they cover their heads.

⁶My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope.

⁷Remember that my life is but a breath. My eyes will never again see happiness.

¹⁴You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

⁹For all our days decline in Your fury; we finish our years with a sigh.

¹⁰The length of our days is seventy years—or eighty if we are strong—yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

⁵You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah

¹⁴The couriers rode out in haste on their royal horses, pressed on by the command of the king. And the edict was also issued in the citadel of Susa.

⁴⁷Remember the briefness of my lifespan! For what futility You have created all men!

⁸Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves of the night. Their horsemen charge ahead, and their cavalry comes from afar. They fly like a vulture, swooping down to devour.

²which sends couriers by sea, in papyrus vessels on the waters. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people widely feared, to a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers.

¹⁹Those who chased us were swifter than the eagles in the sky; they pursued us over the mountains and ambushed us in the wilderness.

¹³Behold, he advances like the clouds, his chariots like the whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined!

²³Saul and Jonathan, beloved and delightful in life, were not divided in death. They were swifter than eagles; they were stronger than lions.

²⁷Does the eagle soar at your command and make his nest on high?

²⁸He dwells on a cliff and lodges there; his stronghold is on a rocky crag.

¹³When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint,

²In the day of trouble I sought the Lord; through the night my outstretched hands did not grow weary; my soul refused to be comforted.

³I remembered You, O God, and I groaned; I mused and my spirit grew faint. Selah

¹¹Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁸My sorrow is beyond healing; my heart is faint within me.

¹²⁰My flesh trembles in awe of You; I stand in fear of Your judgments.

¹⁵From my youth I was afflicted and near death. I have borne Your terrors; I am in despair.

¹⁶Your wrath has swept over me; Your terrors have destroyed me.

²⁰Even if I were righteous, my mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, it would declare me guilty.

²¹Though I am blameless, I have no concern for myself; I despise my own life.

¹⁶For then You would count my steps, but would not keep track of my sin.

¹⁴If I sinned, You would take note, and would not acquit me of my iniquity.

²¹Why do You not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For soon I will lie down in the dust; You will seek me, but I will be no more.”

⁷though You know that I am not guilty, and there is no deliverance from Your hand?

²I will say to God: Do not condemn me! Let me know why You prosecute me.

¹⁴If I sinned, You would take note, and would not acquit me of my iniquity.

¹⁵If I am guilty, woe to me! And even if I am righteous, I cannot lift my head. I am full of shame and aware of my affliction.

¹⁶Still, their prosperity is not in their own hands, so I stay far from the counsel of the wicked.

¹⁷How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? Does disaster come upon them? Does God, in His anger, apportion destruction?

³⁵you say, ‘I am innocent. Surely His anger will turn from me.’ Behold, I will judge you, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’

⁵Is not your wickedness great? Are not your iniquities endless?

⁶For you needlessly demanded security from your brothers and deprived the naked of their clothing.

²²Although you wash with lye and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before Me,” declares the Lord God.

⁶I wash my hands in innocence that I may go about Your altar, O Lord,

⁸If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

¹⁶Wash and cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil!

¹⁷Learn to do right; seek justice and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless and plead the case of the widow.”

¹⁴Wash the evil from your heart, O Jerusalem, so that you may be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts within you?

³Because they were ignorant of God’s righteousness and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.

⁶Your own mouth, not mine, condemns you; your own lips testify against you.

⁸More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ

⁹and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.

²⁰Even if I were righteous, my mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, it would declare me guilty.

⁶Their cobwebs cannot be made into clothing, and they cannot cover themselves with their works. Their deeds are sinful deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands.

⁶Each of us has become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.

²⁰But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?”

¹⁰Whatever exists was named long ago, and it is known what man is; but he cannot contend with one stronger than he.

²Do not bring Your servant into judgment, for no one alive is righteous before You.

⁹Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker—one clay pot among many. Does the clay ask the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?

¹⁹God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?

²⁰Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and He knows all things.

²⁵If a man sins against another man, God can intercede for him; but if a man sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?” But they would not listen to their father, since the Lord intended to put them to death.

¹My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

²He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

¹⁹If it is a matter of strength, He is indeed mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon Him?

²³So He said He would destroy them—had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach to divert His wrath from destroying them.

¹⁶At that time two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.

¹⁷One woman said, “Please, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth while she was in the house.

¹⁰Remove Your scourge from me; I am perishing by the force of Your hand.

⁷Surely no fear of me should terrify you; nor will my hand be heavy upon you.

¹¹Would His majesty not terrify you? Would the dread of Him not fall upon you?

¹¹Who knows the power of Your anger? Your wrath matches the fear You are due.

²⁰Only grant these two things to me, so that I need not hide from You:

²¹Withdraw Your hand from me, and do not let Your terror frighten me.

²³For calamity from God terrifies me, and His splendor I cannot overpower.