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Job 9
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International Standard Version
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This was Job's response:
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"Indeed, I'm fully aware that this is so, but how can a person become right with God?
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If one were to seek to argue with him, he won't be able to answer him even once in a thousand times.
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He is wise in heart and strong in will— who can be stubborn against him and succeed?
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"He removes mountains without their knowledge, overthrowing them in his anger.
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He shakes the earth from its orbit, so that its foundations shudder.
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He commands the sun so that it doesn't shine and seals up the stars.
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He alone spreads out the heavens, he walks on the waves of the sea.
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He created Bear, Orion, the Pleiades, and the southern constellations.
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He does great things that cannot be explained, and awesome deeds that cannot be counted.
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"If he were to pass near me, I wouldn't notice; if he moves by, I wouldn't perceive him.
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Indeed, if he snatches someone away, who could restrain him? Who can say to him, 'What are you doing?'
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"God doesn't restrain his anger. Rahab's assistants are humiliated under him.
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So how am I to answer him, choosing what I am to say to him?
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Even if I'm in the right, I cannot answer him. I can only appeal for mercy.
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"Were I to be summoned, and he were to answer me, I wouldn't even believe that he was listening to what I have to say.
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For he crushes me with a storm, and keeps on wounding me for no reason.
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He won't let me catch my breath; instead, he fills me with bitterness.
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"Is this a contest of strength? He is obviously stronger! Is this a matter of justice? Who can sue him?
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Though I'm in the right, my own mouth will condemn me; though I'm blameless, he'll pronounce me as guilty.
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"I'm blameless; I don't know myself; I despise my life.
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I say it's all the same— he destroys both the blameless and the guilty.
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If a calamity causes sudden death, he'll mock at the despair of the innocent.
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A land is given into the hands of a wicked person; he covers the faces of its judges. If it is not God, then who is it?"
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"My days pass faster than a runner; but they pass quickly without seeing anything good.
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They pass by like a ship made of reeds, like an eagle swooping down on its prey.
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If I were to say, 'Let me forget my complaint,' change the expression on my face, and look cheerful,
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then I still dread all of my suffering; I know you still won't acquit me.
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I will be condemned, so why should I wear myself out with this futility?
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"If I wash myself with water from snow, and cleanse my hands with lye,
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you'll still drop me into the Pit, and my own clothes will despise me.
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He's not a man like me, so that I can answer him, or that we can enter into litigation with one another.
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There is not yet a mediator between us, who would set his hand on the two of us,
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removing his rod from me, and not letting terror of him overwhelm me.
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Otherwise, I would speak without being terrified of him, because I'm not like that inside myself."
The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1
Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY.
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