² ‘The things that you have said are true.
    But nobody can show God that he is completely good.
³ It is not possible to argue with God.
    God can ask 1,000 questions that we cannot answer.
⁴ God is very wise and he is very powerful.
    It is impossible to argue against him and win.
⁵ He has the power to move mountains suddenly.
    When he is angry he can knock them down.
⁶ He shakes the earth,
    to move it from its proper place.
The foundations of the earth shake!
⁷ He may command the sun not to shine during the day.
    He may stop the stars shining at night.
⁸ God alone put the whole sky in its place.
    He marches over the waves of the sea.
⁹ He put the groups of stars in their places.
    He made the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades.^[a]
    He put the groups of stars in the southern sky.
¹⁰ He does great things that we cannot understand.
    He does more wonderful things than we can count.
¹¹ When God passes in front of me,
    I do not see him.
If he moves further away,
    I do not see where he has gone.
¹² If God decides to take something,
    nobody can stop him.
Nobody can ask him, “What are you doing?”
¹³ If God is angry, he will not stop.
    He destroys Rahab and the other monsters of the sea.^[b]

¹⁴ So I can never give an answer to God.
    There are no words that I can use to argue with him.
¹⁵ Even if I am completely right,
    I cannot answer him.
He is my judge.
    I can only ask him to be kind to me.
¹⁶ He might agree to meet with me in court.
    But I do not believe that he would listen to me.
¹⁷ He would attack me with a strong storm.
    He would hurt me even more, for no reason.
¹⁸ He would not allow me to breathe quietly.
    Instead, he would make me very upset.
¹⁹ If I tried to fight God,
    he is much stronger than I am.
And if I ask for justice,
    who can bring God to court?
²⁰ I am right. I have not done anything that is wrong.
    But my words would say that I am guilty.
²¹ I have not done anything that is wrong.
    But it does not matter what happens to me.
    My life is not important to me.
²² The same thing happens to good people and to wicked people.
So I say, “God destroys people who are not guilty
    as well as those who are guilty.”
²³ When disease comes, people may die suddenly.
    God laughs at good people who suffer like that.
²⁴ A wicked man may have power to rule a nation.
    Then God stops the judges from being fair.
It must be God who does that.
    Who else could it be?

²⁵ The days of my life are passing very quickly,
    like a fast runner.
None of my days makes me happy.
²⁶ My days go past like a fast boat on a river.
They move quickly like an eagle
    when it flies down to catch its food.
²⁷ I may try to be happy and to smile.
    I may try to forget about my troubles.
²⁸ Even then, I will be afraid of all my pain.
    God, I know that you think I am guilty.
²⁹ So, if I am guilty,
    it is useless to do anything about it.
³⁰ I might wash myself with pure water.
    I might clean my hands with soap.
³¹ But then God would throw me down into a dirty hole.
    Even my own clothes would be ashamed of me!

³² God is not a human, as I am.
    So I cannot answer him.
We cannot argue with each other in court.
³³ There is nobody who can decide which of us is right.
    Nobody has authority to judge both of us.
³⁴ Nobody can stop God from punishing me.
    If that were possible, I would not be afraid any more.
³⁵ I would speak to God and I would not be afraid.
    But now I cannot do that.