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Job 9 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

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

Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Full copyright information is provided here. Visit the New Living Translation website.

For more information on this translation, see the NLT Preface.

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