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Job spoke next. He said:
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Indeed, I know it is as you say: how could anyone claim to be upright before God?
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Anyone trying to argue matters with him, could not give him one answer in a thousand.
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Among the wisest and the hardiest, who then can successfully defy him?
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He moves the mountains, though they do not know it; he throws them down when he is angry.
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He shakes the earth, and moves it from its place, making all its pillars tremble.
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The sun, at his command, forbears to rise, and on the stars he sets a seal.
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He and no other has stretched out the heavens and trampled on the back of the Sea.
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He has made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the Mansions of the South.
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The works he does are great and unfathomable, and his marvels cannot be counted.
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If he passes me, I do not see him; he slips by, imperceptible to me.
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If he snatches his prey, who is going to stop him or dare to ask, 'What are you doing?'
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God does not renounce his anger: beneath him, Rahab's minions still lie prostrate.
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And here am I, proposing to defend myself and select my arguments against him!
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Even if I am upright, what point is there in answering him? I can only plead for mercy with my judge!
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And if he deigned to answer my citation, I cannot believe he would listen to what I said,
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he who crushes me for one hair, who, for no reason, wounds and wounds again,
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not even letting me regain my breath, with so much bitterness he fills me!
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Shall I try force? Look how strong he is! Or go to court? But who will summon him?
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If I prove myself upright, his mouth may condemn me, even if I am innocent, he may pronounce me perverse.
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But am I innocent? I am no longer sure, and life itself I despise!
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It is all one, and hence I boldly say: he destroys innocent and guilty alike.
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When a sudden deadly scourge descends, he laughs at the plight of the innocent.
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When a country falls into the power of the wicked, he veils the faces of its judges. Or if not he, who else?
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My days pass: more swiftly than a runner they flee away with never a glimpse of happiness,
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they skim past like a reed canoe, like an eagle swooping on its prey.
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If I decide to stifle my complaining, change countenance, and wear a smiling face,
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fear seizes me at the thought of all my woes, for I know you do not regard me as innocent.
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And if I have done wrong, why should I put myself to useless trouble?
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If I wash myself in melted snow, clean my hands with soda,
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you will only plunge me into the dung, till my clothes themselves recoil from me!
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For he is not human like me: impossible for me to answer him or appear alongside him in court.
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There is no arbiter between us, to lay his hand on both,
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to stay his rod from me, or keep away his daunting terrors.
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Nonetheless, unafraid of him, I shall speak: since I do not see myself like that at all!
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