| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | New Living Translation |
| 1[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 1Then Job spoke again: |
| 2[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 2“Yes, I know all this is true in principle. But how can a person be declared innocent in God’s sight? |
| 3[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 3If someone wanted to take God to court, would it be possible to answer him even once in a thousand times? |
| 4[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 4For God is so wise and so mighty. Who has ever challenged him successfully? |
| 5[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 5“Without warning, he moves the mountains, overturning them in his anger. |
| 6[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 6He shakes the earth from its place, and its foundations tremble. |
| 7[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 7If he commands it, the sun won’t rise and the stars won’t shine. |
| 8[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 8He alone has spread out the heavens and marches on the waves of the sea. |
| 9[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 9He made all the stars—the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the southern sky. |
| 10[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 10He does great things too marvelous to understand. He performs countless miracles. |
| 11[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 11“Yet when he comes near, I cannot see him. When he moves by, I do not see him go. |
| 12[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 12If he snatches someone in death, who can stop him? Who dares to ask, ‘What are you doing?’ |
| 13[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 13And God does not restrain his anger. Even the monsters of the sea are crushed beneath his feet. |
| 14[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 14“So who am I, that I should try to answer God or even reason with him? |
| 15[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 15Even if I were right, I would have no defense. I could only plead for mercy. |
| 16[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 16And even if I summoned him and he responded, I’m not sure he would listen to me. |
| 17[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 17For he attacks me with a storm and repeatedly wounds me without cause. |
| 18[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 18He will not let me catch my breath, but fills me instead with bitter sorrows. |
| 19[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 19If it’s a question of strength, he’s the strong one. If it’s a matter of justice, who dares to summon him to court? |
| 20[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 20Though I am innocent, my own mouth would pronounce me guilty. Though I am blameless, it would prove me wicked. |
| 21[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 21“I am innocent, but it makes no difference to me— I despise my life. |
| 22[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 22Innocent or wicked, it is all the same to God. That’s why I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’ |
| 23[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 23When a plague sweeps through, he laughs at the death of the innocent. |
| 24[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 24The whole earth is in the hands of the wicked, and God blinds the eyes of the judges. If he’s not the one who does it, who is? |
| 25[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 25“My life passes more swiftly than a runner. It flees away without a glimpse of happiness. |
| 26[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 26It disappears like a swift papyrus boat, like an eagle swooping down on its prey. |
| 27[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 27If I decided to forget my complaints, to put away my sad face and be cheerful, |
| 28[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 28I would still dread all the pain, for I know you will not find me innocent, O God. |
| 29[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 29Whatever happens, I will be found guilty. So what’s the use of trying? |
| 30[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 30Even if I were to wash myself with soap and clean my hands with lye, |
| 31[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 31you would plunge me into a muddy ditch, and my own filthy clothing would hate me. |
| 32[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 32“God is not a mortal like me, so I cannot argue with him or take him to trial. |
| 33[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 33If only there were a mediator between us, someone who could bring us together. |
| 34[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 34The mediator could make God stop beating me, and I would no longer live in terror of his punishment. |
| 35[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 35Then I could speak to him without fear, but I cannot do that in my own strength. |
| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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