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For the arrows of the Almighty are in me,(A)
    and my spirit drinks in their poison;
    the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
Does the wild donkey bray when it has grass?[a]
    Does the ox low over its fodder?
Can anything insipid be eaten without salt?
    Is there flavor in the white of an egg?
I refuse to touch them;
    they are like loathsome food to me.
Oh, that I might have my request,
    and that God would grant what I long for:

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Footnotes

  1. 6:5–6 Job would not complain if his life were as pleasant to him as fodder to a hungry animal; but his life is as disagreeable as insipid food. White of an egg: thus the obscure Hebrew has been understood in Jewish tradition; some render it “mallow juice.”

Chapter 9

Job’s Second Reply. Then Job answered and said:

I know well that it is so;
    but how can anyone be in the right before God?
Should one wish to contend with him,[a]
    he could not answer him once in a thousand times.
God is wise in heart and mighty in strength;
    who has withstood him and remained whole?
He removes the mountains before they know it;
    he overturns them in his anger.
He shakes the earth out of its place,(A)
    and the pillars beneath it tremble.
He commands the sun, and it does not rise;
    he seals up the stars.
He alone stretches out the heavens(B)
    and treads upon the back of the sea.
He made the Bear and Orion,
    the Pleiades and the constellations of the south;
10 He does things great and unsearchable,
    things marvelous and innumerable.
11 Should he come near me, I do not see him;
    should he pass by, I am not aware of him;
12 Should he seize me forcibly, who can resist?
    Who can say to him, “What are you doing?”

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Footnotes

  1. 9:3 Job begins to explore the possibility of challenging God in a lawsuit, a theme that will recur (10:2), but he knows the odds are against him (vv. 12–20).