Job 9:16-35

16If I summoned him, and he answered me, I would not believe that he would be listening to my voice –

17he who crushes me with a tempest, and multiplies my wounds for no reason.

18He does not allow me to recover my breath, for he fills me with bitterness.

19If it is a matter of strength, most certainly he is the strong one! And if it is a matter of justice, he will say, ‘Who will summon me?’

20Although I am innocent, my mouth would condemn me; although I am blameless, it would declare me perverse.

21I am blameless. I do not know myself. I despise my life.

22“It is all one! That is why I say, ‘He destroys the blameless and the guilty.’

23If a scourge brings sudden death, he mocks at the despair of the innocent.

24If a land has been given into the hand of a wicked man, he covers the faces of its judges; if it is not he, then who is it?

25“My days are swifter than a runner, they speed by without seeing happiness.

26They glide by like reed boats, like an eagle that swoops down on its prey.

27If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will change my expression and be cheerful,’

28I dread all my sufferings, for I know that you do not hold me blameless.

29If I am guilty, why then weary myself in vain?

30If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands clean with lye,

31then you plunge me into a slimy pit and my own clothes abhor me.

32For he is not a human being like I am, that I might answer him, that we might come together in judgment.

33Nor is there an arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both,

34who would take his rod away from me so that his terror would not make me afraid.

35Then would I speak and not fear him, but it is not so with me.