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Job Replies: There Is No Mediator

Then Job answered:

“Indeed, I know that this is so,
    but how can a mortal be just before God?(A)
If one wished to contend with him,
    one could not answer him once in a thousand.(B)
He is wise in heart and mighty in strength;
    who has resisted him and succeeded?(C)
He removes mountains, and they do not know it
    when he overturns them in his anger;
he shakes the earth out of its place,
    and its pillars tremble;(D)
he commands the sun, and it does not rise;
    he seals up the stars;
he alone stretched out the heavens
    and trampled the waves of the Sea;[a](E)
he made the Bear and Orion,
    the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;(F)
10 he does great things beyond understanding
    and marvelous things without number.(G)
11 Look, he passes by me, and I do not see him;
    he moves on, but I do not perceive him.(H)
12 He snatches away; who can stop him?
    Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’(I)

13 “God will not turn back his anger;
    the helpers of Rahab bowed beneath him.(J)
14 How then can I answer him,
    choosing my words with him?
15 Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him;
    I must appeal to my accuser for my right.(K)

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Footnotes

  1. 9.8 Or trampled the back of the sea dragon

32 For he is not a mortal, as I am, that I might answer him,
    that we should come to trial together.(A)
33 There is no mediator[a] between us,
    who might lay his hand on us both.(B)
34 If he would take his rod away from me
    and not let dread of him terrify me,(C)
35 then I would speak without fear of him,
    for I know I am not what I am thought to be.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. 9.33 Another reading is Would that there were a mediator
  2. 9.35 Cn: Heb for I am not so in myself