HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 828
JOB 10
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For he attacks me with a storm
and repeatedly wounds me without cause.
He will not let me catch my breath,
but fills me instead with bitter sorrows.
If it’s a question of strength, he’s the
strong one.
If it’s a matter of justice, who dares to
summon him* to court?
Though I am innocent, my own mouth
would pronounce me guilty.
Though I am blameless, it* would
prove me wicked.
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“I am innocent,
but it makes no difference to me—
I despise my life.
Innocent or wicked, it is all the same to God.
That’s why I say, ‘He destroys both the
blameless and the wicked.’
When a plague* sweeps through,
he laughs at the death of the innocent.
The whole earth is in the hands of the
wicked,
and God blinds the eyes of the judges.
If he’s not the one who does it, who is?
“My life passes more swiftly than a runner.
It flees away without a glimpse of
happiness.
It disappears like a swift papyrus boat,
like an eagle swooping down on its prey.
If I decided to forget my complaints,
to put away my sad face and be cheerful,
I would still dread all the pain,
for I know you will not find me innocent,
O God.
Whatever happens, I will be found guilty.
So what’s the use of trying?
Even if I were to wash myself with soap
and clean my hands with lye,
you would plunge me into a muddy ditch,
and my own filthy clothing would hate me.
“God is not a mortal like me,
so I cannot argue with him or take him
to trial.
If only there were a mediator between us,
someone who could bring us together.
The mediator could make God stop
beating me,
and I would no longer live in terror of his
punishment.
Then I could speak to him without fear,
but I cannot do that in my own strength.
Job Frames His Plea to God
1 “I am disgusted with my life.
Let me complain freely.
My bitter soul must complain.
2 I will say to God, ‘Don’t simply condemn me—
tell me the charge you are bringing
against me.
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What do you gain by oppressing me?
Why do you reject me, the work of your
own hands,
while smiling on the schemes of the
wicked?
Are your eyes like those of a human?
Do you see things only as people see
them?
Is your lifetime only as long as ours?
Is your life so short
that you must quickly probe for my guilt
and search for my sin?
Although you know I am not guilty,
no one can rescue me from your hands.
“‘You formed me with your hands; you
made me,
yet now you completely destroy me.
Remember that you made me from dust—
will you turn me back to dust so soon?
You guided my conception
and formed me in the womb.*
You clothed me with skin and flesh,
and you knit my bones and sinews
together.
You gave me life and showed me your
unfailing love.
My life was preserved by your care.
“‘Yet your real motive—
your true intent—
was to watch me, and if I sinned,
you would not forgive my guilt.
If I am guilty, too bad for me;
and even if I’m innocent, I can’t hold
my head high,
because I am filled with shame and
misery.
And if I hold my head high, you hunt me
like a lion
and display your awesome power
against me.
Again and again you witness against me.
You pour out your growing anger on me
and bring fresh armies against me.
“‘Why, then, did you deliver me from my
mother’s womb?
Why didn’t you let me die at birth?
It would be as though I had never existed,
going directly from the womb to the
grave.
I have only a few days left, so leave me
alone,
that I may have a moment of comfort
before I leave—never to return—
for the land of darkness and utter gloom.
It is a land as dark as midnight,
a land of gloom and confusion,
where even the light is dark as midnight.’”
9:19 As in Greek version; Hebrew reads me. 9:20 Or he.
9:23 Or disaster. 10:10 Hebrew You poured me out like milk /
and curdled me like cheese.