Job9

Job acknowledges God's omnipotence and unchallengeable wisdom, questioning how any mortal can be justified before Him. He describes God's absolute control over creation and His unsearchable works. Job despairs, believing that God indiscriminately afflicts both the righteous and the wicked, and that any attempt to justify himself is futile. He laments the absence of an arbiter to mediate between himself and the Almighty.

Job Poses the Central Question

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Then Iob answered, and sayd,
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I knowe verily that it is so: for howe should man compared vnto God, be iustified?
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If I would dispute with him, hee could not answere him one thing of a thousand.

God's Irresistible Power and Wisdom

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He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath bene fierce against him and hath prospered?
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He remoueth the mountaines, and they feele not when he ouerthroweth them in his wrath.
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Hee remooueth the earth out of her place, that the pillars thereof doe shake.
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He commandeth the sunne, and it riseth not: hee closeth vp the starres, as vnder a signet.
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Hee himselfe alone spreadeth out the heauens, and walketh vpon the height of the sea.
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He maketh the starres Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the climates of the South.
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He doeth great things, and vnsearcheable: yea, marueilous things without nomber.
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Lo, when he goeth by me, I see him not: and when he passeth by, I perceiue him not.
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Behold, when he taketh a pray, who can make him to restore it? who shall say vnto him, What doest thou?
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God will not withdrawe his anger, and the most mightie helpes doe stoupe vnder him.

Man Cannot Contend with God

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Howe much lesse shall I answere him? or howe should I finde out my words with him?
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For though I were iust, yet could I not answere, but I would make supplication to my Iudge.
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If I cry, and he answere me, yet woulde I not beleeue, that he heard my voyce.
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For he destroyeth mee with a tempest, and woundeth me without cause.
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He wil not suffer me to take my breath, but filleth me with bitternesse.
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If we speake of strength, behold, he is strog: if we speake of iudgement, who shall bring me in to pleade?
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If I woulde iustifie my selfe, mine owne mouth shall condemne mee: if I would be perfite, he shall iudge me wicked.
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Though I were perfite, yet I knowe not my soule: therefore abhorre I my life.

God Destroys the Perfect and the Wicked

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This is one point: therefore I said, Hee destroyeth the perfite and the wicked.
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If the scourge should suddenly slay, should God laugh at the punishment of the innocent?
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The 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?

The Search for a Mediator

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My dayes haue bene more swift then a post: they haue fled, and haue seene no good thing.
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They are passed as with the most swift ships, and as the eagle that flyeth to the pray.
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If I say, I wil forget my complaynt, I will cease from my wrath, and comfort mee,
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Then I am afrayd of all my sorowes, knowing that thou wilt not iudge me innocent.
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If I be wicked, why labour I thus in vaine?
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If I wash my selfe with snowe water, and purge mine hands most cleane,
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Yet shalt thou plunge mee in the pit, and mine owne clothes shall make me filthie.
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For he is not a man as I am, that I shoulde answere him, if we come together to iudgement.
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Neyther is there any vmpire that might lay his hand vpon vs both.
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Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his feare astonish me:
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Then will I speake, and feare him not: but because I am not so, I holde me still.
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