Knox Bible

1

But Job answered:

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No need to teach me that; how should a man win his suit, matched against God?

3

Who would go to law, where one plea on this side is arrayed against a thousand on that?

4

His all-knowing mind, his all-conquering arms, what man ever throve yet that defied them?

5

God, the unseen power that can thrust mountains this way and that, uproot them in his anger,

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can move earth from its place, and set all its pillars quaking,

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can prevent, with a word, the sun’s rising, or imprison, under his royal seal, the very stars?

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He it was, and no other, that spread out heaven to be his covering, made ocean a floor under his feet;

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that created Arcturus, and Orion, and the Hyades, and the nooks of the south;✻

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great wonders he does, beyond all our understanding and all our reckoning.

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Hidden from my sight, hidden from my thought, he comes and goes;

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comes suddenly, and how should I defend my doings? goes suddenly, and how should I question his?

13

There is no braving the anger of such a God, when even the Titanic powers obey him;✻

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and what am I that I should use phrases of studied eloquence for my pleading?

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Nay, though I had right on my side, I would not plead against him as an adversary, I would sue to him for mercy as a judge.

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What though I should cry upon him, and he should answer my summons? Well I know he would listen to no pleadings of mine;

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his storms would overwhelm me, faster than ever the unmerited blows would fall;

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never a breathing-space, never a draught but of gall!

19

Nought avails might, when a giant threatens me; nought avails right, when none dares to support my quarrel.

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Would I plead in defence, he turns my own words against me; be I never so upright, he will prove me hypocrite.

21

And innocent I am, but of that I take regard no longer; I am aweary of life itself.

22

Still unchanged is the burden of my complaint; innocent and guilty, he sweeps all away.✻

23

If his scourge must fall, should not a single blow suffice? Why does he look on and laugh, when the unoffending, too, must suffer?

24

So the whole world is given up into the power of wrong-doers; he blinds the eyes of justice. He is answerable for it; who else?

25

Swift as a royal courier my days pass, and joyless each one,

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like a pinnace gliding down stream,✻ or an eagle swooping on its prey.

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Ere now, I have been minded to put away such talk as this, wear a sad face and live on the rack no more; still would I have pains to daunt me;

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still thou wouldst hold me guilty, wouldst not spare.

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Blamed I must be, in spite of all; vain was my striving,

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vainly I washed me in water pure as snow, kept my hands shining clean;

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thy condemnation must roll me in the mire again, till the very clothes I wear shun the touch of me!

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I cannot meet him in judgement as man to man, claim an impartial hearing for my plea;

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there can be no arbiter between us, to claim jurisdiction over both.

34

Let him lay by his rod, let his terrors cease to daunt me;

35

then I will speak out bravely to his face; it is fear that holds me dumb.