Job says he is innocent
1Job spoke again. He said:
2‘Yes, I know that is true.
No person is righteous before God.
3If someone wants to take God to court,
he will not be able to answer God.
If God asks him a thousand questions,
he will not be able
to answer even one of the questions.
4God has all the wisdom
and He is very strong and powerful.
No one, no man or woman, has ever
rebelled_against God and won.
5God moves mountains
and they don't even know it.
He turns mountains upside down
when He is angry.
6He makes the earth tremble,
so it doesn't stay in its place,
and He makes the pillars and foundation
of the earth tremble.
7If God tells the sun not to shine,
it doesn't come up, and He makes the stars dark.
8No one helped God when He made
the heaven and put it up like a tent.
He is the One who can walk
on the waves of the sea.
9He made the stars: the Bear,
Orion and Pleiades,
and all the stars in the southern sky.
10God does great things
that people can not understand,
and He does so many miracles
that no one can count them.
11You must know this:
When God goes past me,
I can not see Him,
and I don't know that He did.
12Yes, if God wants to take
something away, no one can stop Him.
No one can think that God is wrong
and ask Him: “What are you doing?”
13God will always be angry
when something is wrong.
Everyone who wanted to help
the sea monster Rahab
had to bow down before Him and fear.
14How can I answer God?
What must I say when I speak to Him?
15I am not guilty, but I can not answer God.
I can only pray that He will be merciful
to me because He is my Judge.
16I can not believe
that He would listen to me,
even when I call Him and He answers me.
17He sends storm winds
to hurt and wound me,
but I have done nothing wrong.
18He does not give me time to get my breath.
He makes me suffer more and more.
19If we want to see who is the strongest,
then He will be the One who is the most powerful.
If we want to see who has done right or wrong,
then no one can take Him to court.
20I am innocent, but everything that I say
shows that I am guilty.
I have lived in the right way, but He says I am guilty.
21I have lived in the right way,
but now I don't care about myself.
I hate living like this.
22Everyone suffers in the same way.
That is why I say:
“God punishes good and bad people,
the people who have lived in the right way
and those who have lived wrongly.”
23If something bad happens
and innocent people start to worry,
then God laughs at them.
24If bad people rule the earth,
God makes the judges blind so that
they don't see what they are doing wrong.
I think it is God who does that,
because if it is not He,
then who is doing it? I don't know.’
No one can say who is right
25‘The days of my life
go past very quickly,
faster than a man who is running.
They are gone before I can enjoy anything.
26They go past as fast
as a boat made of reeds,
or like an eagle that dives down
to catch something.
27If I want to forget my troubles
and stop complaining,
and if I want to smile and be happy,
28then I become afraid
because of all my suffering,
because I know that You
will not say that I am innocent.
29You will say that I am guilty,
and that is why I will stop trying
to show that I am innocent.
30I can wash myself in snow water,
and I can clean my hands with strong soap,
31but God will throw me
into a deep hole full of mud again,
and I will become so dirty that my clothes
will not want to stay on my body.
32Yes, God is not human like I am,
and I can not answer Him.
I can not take Him to court.
33There is no judge who can listen
to both of us and decide
who is right, God or I.
34Lord, please stop punishing me with your stick
and please don't make me afraid of You.
35Then I will be able to speak
and I will not fear You,
but I can not do that now.’
