Job: How Can I Contend with God?

1Then Iob answered, and sayd,

2I knowe verily that it is so: for howe should man compared vnto God, be iustified?

3If I would dispute with him, hee could not answere him one thing of a thousand.

4He is wise in heart, & mighty in stregth: who hath bene fierce against him & hath prospered?

5He remoueth the mountaines, and they feele not when he ouerthroweth them in his wrath.

6Hee remooueth the earth out of her place, that the pillars thereof doe shake.

7He commandeth the sunne, & it riseth not: hee closeth vp the starres, as vnder a signet.

8Hee himselfe alone spreadeth out the heauens, and walketh vpon the height of the sea.

9He maketh the starres Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the climates of the South.

10He doeth great things, and vnsearcheable: yea, marueilous things without nomber.

11Lo, when he goeth by me, I see him not: and when he passeth by, I perceiue him not.

12Behold, when he taketh a pray, who can make him to restore it? who shall say vnto him, What doest thou?

13God will not withdrawe his anger, and the most mightie helpes doe stoupe vnder him.

14Howe much lesse shall I answere him? or howe should I finde out my words with him?

15For though I were iust, yet could I not answere, but I would make supplicatio to my Iudge.

16If I cry, and he answere me, yet woulde I not beleeue, that he heard my voyce.

17For he destroyeth mee with a tempest, and woundeth me without cause.

18He wil not suffer me to take my breath, but filleth me with bitternesse.

19If we speake of strength, behold, he is strog: if we speake of iudgement, who shall bring me in to pleade?

20If I woulde iustifie my selfe, mine owne mouth shall condemne mee: if I would be perfite, he shall iudge me wicked.

21Though I were perfite, yet I knowe not my soule: therefore abhorre I my life.

22This is one point: therefore I said, Hee destroyeth the perfite and the wicked.

23If the scourge should suddely slay, should God laugh at the punishment of the innocent?

24The earth is giuen into the hand of ye wicked: he couereth the faces of the iudges therof: if not, where is he? or who is he?

25My dayes haue bene more swift then a post: they haue fled, and haue seene no good thing.

26They are passed as with the most swift ships, and as the eagle that flyeth to the pray.

27If I say, I wil forget my complaynt, I will cease from my wrath, and comfort mee,

28Then I am afrayd of all my sorowes, knowing that thou wilt not iudge me innocent.

29If I be wicked, why labour I thus in vaine?

30If I wash my selfe with snowe water, and purge mine hands most cleane,

31Yet shalt thou plunge mee in the pit, and mine owne clothes shal make me filthie.

32For he is not a man as I am, that I shoulde answere him, if we come together to iudgement.

33Neyther is there any vmpire that might lay his hand vpon vs both.

34Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his feare astonish me:

35Then will I speake, & feare him not: but because I am not so, I holde me still.