² “Indeed, I’m fully aware that this is so,
    but how can a person become right with God?
³ If one were to seek to argue with him,
    he won’t be able to answer him even once in a thousand times.
⁴ He is wise in heart and strong in will—
    who can be stubborn against him and succeed?

⁵ “He removes mountains without their knowledge,
    overthrowing them in his anger.
⁶ He shakes the earth from its orbit,^[a]
    so that its foundations shudder.
⁷ He commands the sun so that it doesn’t shine^[b]
    and seals up the stars.
⁸ He alone spreads out the heavens,
    he walks on the waves^[c] of the sea.
⁹ He created Bear, Orion, the Pleiades,
    and the southern constellations.
¹⁰ He does great things that cannot be explained,
    and awesome deeds that cannot be counted.

¹¹ “If he were to pass near me, I wouldn’t notice;
    if he moves by, I wouldn’t perceive him.
¹² Indeed, if he snatches someone^[d] away,
    who could restrain him?
        Who can say to him, ‘What are you doing?’

¹³ “God doesn’t restrain his anger.
    Rahab’s assistants are humiliated under him.
¹⁴ So how am I to answer him,
    choosing what I am to say to him?
¹⁵ Even if I’m in the right,
    I cannot answer him.
        I can only appeal for mercy.

¹⁶ “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.^[e]
17 For he crushes me with a storm,
    and keeps on wounding me for no reason.
¹⁸ He won’t let me catch my breath;
    instead, he fills me with bitterness.

¹⁹ “Is this a contest of strength? He is obviously stronger!
    Is this a matter of justice? Who can sue him?
²⁰ Though I’m in the right, my own mouth will condemn me;
    though I’m blameless, he’ll pronounce me as guilty.

²¹ “I’m blameless;
    I don’t know myself;
        I despise my life.
²² I say it’s all the same—
    he destroys both the blameless and the guilty.^[f]
23 If a calamity^[g] causes sudden death,
    he’ll mock at the despair of the innocent.
²⁴ A land is given into the hands of a wicked person;^[h]
    he covers the faces of its judges.
        If it is not God,^[i] then who is it?”

³⁰ “If I wash myself with water from snow,
    and cleanse my hands with lye,
³¹ you’ll still drop me into the Pit,^[l]
    and my own clothes will despise me.
³² He’s not a man like me,
    so that I can answer him,
        or that we can enter into litigation^[m] with one another.
³³ There is not yet a mediator between us,
    who would set his hand on the two of us,
³⁴ removing his rod from me,
    and not letting terror of him overwhelm me.
³⁵ Otherwise, I would speak without being terrified of him,
    because I’m not like that inside myself.”