Job 9:14-35

English Standard Version

¹⁴^(A)How then can I ^(B)answer him,
    choosing my words with him?
¹⁵^(C)Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him;
    I must ^(D)appeal for mercy to my accuser.^[a]
¹⁶If I summoned him and he answered me,
    I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.
¹⁷For he crushes me with a tempest
    and multiplies my wounds ^(E)without cause;
¹⁸he will not let me get my breath,
    but fills me with bitterness.
¹⁹If it is a contest of ^(F)strength, behold, he is mighty!
    If it is a matter of justice, who can ^(G)summon him?^[b]
²⁰Though I am in the right, ^(H)my own mouth would condemn me;
    though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.
²¹I am ^(I)blameless; I regard not myself;
    I ^(J)loathe my life.
²²It is all one; therefore I say,
    ‘He ^(K)destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’
²³When ^(L)disaster brings sudden death,
    he mocks at the calamity^[c] of the innocent.
²⁴^(M)The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;
    he ^(N)covers the faces of its judges—
    ^(O)if it is not he, who then is it?

²⁵“My ^(P)days are swifter than ^(Q)a runner;
    they flee away; they see no good.
²⁶They go by like ^(R)skiffs of reed,
    like ^(S)an eagle swooping on the prey.
²⁷If I say, ^(T)‘I will forget my complaint,
    I will put off my sad face, and ^(U)be of good cheer,’
²⁸I become ^(V)afraid of all my suffering,
    for I know you will not ^(W)hold me innocent.
²⁹I shall be ^(X)condemned;
    why then do I labor in vain?
³⁰If I wash myself with snow
    and ^(Y)cleanse my hands with lye,
³¹yet you will plunge me into a pit,
    and my own clothes will ^(Z)abhor me.
³²For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him,
    that we should ^(AA)come to trial together.
³³^(AB)There is no^[d] arbiter between us,
    who might lay his hand on us both.
³⁴^(AC)Let him take his ^(AD)rod away from me,
    and let ^(AE)not dread of him terrify me.
³⁵Then I would speak without fear of him,
    for I am not so in myself.