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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Job 9 ESV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/job/9.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" 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title="Job 8">◄</a> Job 9 <a href="../job/10.htm" title="Job 10">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">English Standard Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/esv/nas/job/9.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div></a><div class="chap"><p class="heading">Job Replies: There Is No Arbiter</p><p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>Then Job answered and said:</p> <span class="block-indent"><p class="line-group"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">“Truly I know that it is so:</span><br /><span class="indent">But how can a man be in the right before God?</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">If one wished to contend with him,</span><br /><span class="indent">one could not answer him once in a thousand times.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">He is wise in heart and mighty in strength</span><br /><span class="indent">—who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?—</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">he who removes mountains, and they know it not,</span><br /><span class="indent">when he overturns them in his anger,</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">who shakes the earth out of its place,</span><br /><span class="indent">and its pillars tremble;</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">who commands the sun, and it does not rise;</span><br /><span class="indent">who seals up the stars;</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">who alone stretched out the heavens</span><br /><span class="indent">and trampled the waves of the sea;</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">who made the Bear and Orion,</span><br /><span class="indent">the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">who does great things beyond searching out,</span><br /><span class="indent">and marvelous things beyond number.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not;</span><br /><span class="indent">he moves on, but I do not perceive him.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Behold, he snatches away; who can turn him back?</span><br /><span class="indent">Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’</span></p> <p class="line-group"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">“God will not turn back his anger;</span><br /><span class="indent">beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">How then can I answer him,</span><br /><span class="indent">choosing my words with him?</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him;</span><br /><span class="indent">I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Or to my judge">a</a></sup></span></span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">If I summoned him and he answered me,</span><br /><span class="indent">I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">For he crushes me with a tempest</span><br /><span class="indent">and multiplies my wounds without cause;</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">he will not let me get my breath,</span><br /><span class="indent">but fills me with bitterness.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty!</span><br /><span class="indent">If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Or who can grant me a hearing?">b</a></sup></span></span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me;</span><br /><span class="indent">though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">I am blameless; I regard not myself;</span><br /><span class="indent">I loathe my life.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">It is all one; therefore I say,</span><br /><span class="indent">‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">When disaster brings sudden death,</span><br /><span class="indent">he mocks at the calamity<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain">c</a></sup></span> of the innocent.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-24.htm"><b>24</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;</span><br /><span class="indent">he covers the faces of its judges—</span><br /><span class="indent">if it is not he, who then is it?</span></p> <p class="line-group"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-25.htm"><b>25</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">“My days are swifter than a runner;</span><br /><span class="indent">they flee away; they see no good.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-26.htm"><b>26</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">They go by like skiffs of reed,</span><br /><span class="indent">like an eagle swooping on the prey.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-27.htm"><b>27</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint,</span><br /><span class="indent">I will put off my sad face, and be of good cheer,’</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-28.htm"><b>28</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">I become afraid of all my suffering,</span><br /><span class="indent">for I know you will not hold me innocent.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-29.htm"><b>29</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">I shall be condemned;</span><br /><span class="indent">why then do I labor in vain?</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-30.htm"><b>30</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">If I wash myself with snow</span><br /><span class="indent">and cleanse my hands with lye,</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-31.htm"><b>31</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">yet you will plunge me into a pit,</span><br /><span class="indent">and my own clothes will abhor me.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-32.htm"><b>32</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him,</span><br /><span class="indent">that we should come to trial together.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-33.htm"><b>33</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">There is no<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Or Would that there were an">d</a></sup></span> arbiter between us,</span><br /><span class="indent">who might lay his hand on us both.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-34.htm"><b>34</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Let him take his rod away from me,</span><br /><span class="indent">and let not dread of him terrify me.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-35.htm"><b>35</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Then I would speak without fear of him,</span><br /><span class="indent">for I am not so in myself.</span></p><A name="footnotes"></a><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="footnotesbot">a</span> <span class="fnverse">15</span> Or <i><span class="catch-word">to my</span> judge</i><br /><span class="footnotesbot">b</span> <span class="fnverse">19</span> Or <i>who can grant me a hearing?</i><br /><span class="footnotesbot">c</span> <span class="fnverse">23</span> The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain<br /><span class="footnotesbot">d</span> <span class="fnverse">33</span> Or <i>Would that there were an</i><br /></span></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">ESV Text Edition® (2016).<br /><br />The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by <a href="http://www.crossway.org/home/esv/">Crossway Bibles</a>, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. 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