Job 9:1  Job continued by saying:

Job 9:2  "So what's new? I know all this. The question is, 'How can mere mortals get right with God?'

Job 9:3  If we wanted to bring our case before him, what chance would we have? Not one in a thousand!

Job 9:4  God's wisdom is so deep, God's power so immense, who could take him on and come out in one piece?

Job 9:5  He moves mountains before they know what's happened, flips them on their heads on a whim.

Job 9:6  He gives the earth a good shaking up, rocks it down to its very foundations.

Job 9:7  He tells the sun, 'Don't shine,' and it doesn't; he pulls the blinds on the stars.

Job 9:8  All by himself he stretches out the heavens and strides on the waves of the sea.

Job 9:9  He designed the Big Dipper and Orion, the Pleiades and Alpha Centauri.

Job 9:10  We'll never comprehend all the great things he does; his miracle-surprises can't be counted.

Job 9:11  Somehow, though he moves right in front of me, I don't see him; quietly but surely he's active, and I miss it.

Job 9:12  If he steals you blind, who can stop him? Who's going to say, 'Hey, what are you doing?'

Job 9:13  God doesn't hold back on his anger; even dragon-bred monsters cringe before him.

Job 9:14  "So how could I ever argue with him, construct a defense that would influence God?

Job 9:15  Even though I'm innocent I could never prove it; I can only throw myself on the Judge's mercy.

Job 9:16  If I called on God and he himself answered me, then, and only then, would I believe that he'd heard me.

Job 9:17  As it is, he knocks me about from pillar to post, beating me up, black and blue, for no good reason.

Job 9:18  He won't even let me catch my breath, piles bitterness upon bitterness.

Job 9:19  If it's a question of who's stronger, he wins, hands down! If it's a question of justice, who'll serve him the subpoena?

Job 9:20  Even though innocent, anything I say incriminates me; blameless as I am, my defense just makes me sound worse.

Job 9:21  "Believe me, I'm blameless. I don't understand what's going on. I hate my life!

Job 9:22  Since either way it ends up the same, I can only conclude that God destroys the good right along with the bad.

Job 9:23  When calamity hits and brings sudden death, he folds his arms, aloof from the despair of the innocent.

Job 9:24  He lets the wicked take over running the world, he installs judges who can't tell right from wrong. If he's not responsible, who is?

Job 9:25  "My time is short--what's left of my life races off too fast for me to even glimpse the good.

Job 9:26  My life is going fast, like a ship under full sail, like an eagle plummeting to its prey.

Job 9:27  Even if I say, 'I'll put all this behind me, I'll look on the bright side and force a smile,'

Job 9:28  All these troubles would still be like grit in my gut since it's clear you're not going to let up.

Job 9:29  The verdict has already been handed down--'Guilty!'-- so what's the use of protests or appeals?

Job 9:30  Even if I scrub myself all over and wash myself with the strongest soap I can find,

Job 9:31  It wouldn't last--you'd push me into a pigpen, or worse, so nobody could stand me for the stink.

Job 9:32  "God and I are not equals; I can't bring a case against him. We'll never enter a courtroom as peers.

Job 9:33  How I wish we had an arbitrator to step in and let me get on with life--

Job 9:34  To break God's death grip on me, to free me from this terror so I could breathe again.

Job 9:35  Then I'd speak up and state my case boldly. As things stand, there is no way I can do it.