² I know for certain that this is so;
    and how can anyone be innocent before God?
³ If one wants to contend with him,
    he won’t answer one in a thousand.
⁴ He is wise and powerful;
    who can resist him and prosper?
⁵ Who removes mountains, and they are unaware;
    who overthrows them in anger?
⁶ Who shakes the earth from its place,
    and its pillars shudder?
⁷ Who commands the sun, and it does not rise,
    even seals up the stars;
⁸     stretched out the heavens alone
    and trod on the waves of the Sea;
⁹     made the Bear and Orion, Pleiades
    and the southern constellations;
¹⁰     does great and unsearchable things,
    wonders beyond number?

¹¹ If God goes by me, I can’t see him;
    he glides past, and I can’t perceive him.
¹² If he seizes, who can bring back?
    Who can say to him, “What are you doing?”
¹³ God won’t retract his anger;
    the helpers of Rahab bow beneath him.
¹⁴ Yet I myself will answer him;
    I’ll choose my words in a contest with him.
¹⁵ Even if I’m innocent, I can’t answer;
    I must plead for justice.
¹⁶ If I were to call and he answered me,
    I couldn’t believe that he heard my voice.
¹⁷ Who bruises me with a tempest
    and multiplies my wounds for no reason?
¹⁸ He doesn’t let me catch my breath,
    for he fills me with bitterness.
¹⁹ If the issue is strength—behold power!
    If justice—who calls God to meet me?

²⁰ If I’m innocent, my mouth condemns me;
    I have integrity; but God declares me perverse.
²¹ I’m blameless, yet don’t know myself;
    I reject my life.
²² It’s all the same;
    therefore, I say God destroys the blameless and the sinners.
²³ If calamity suddenly kills,
    he mocks at the slaying of innocents.
²⁴ The earth is handed over to the wicked;
    he covers the faces of its judges.
    If not God, then who does?

²⁵ My days are swifter than a runner;
    they flee and don’t experience good.
²⁶ They sweep by like ships made of reeds,
    as an eagle swoops on prey.
²⁷ If I say, “I’ll forget my lament,
    put on a different face so I can smile,”
²⁸     I’m still afraid of all my suffering;
        I know that you won’t declare me innocent.
²⁹ I myself am thought guilty;
    why have I tried so hard in vain?
³⁰ If I wash myself with snow,
        purify my hands with soap,
³¹     then you’ll hurl me into a slimy pit
        so that my clothes detest me.
³² God is not a man like me—someone I could answer—
    so that we could come together in court.
³³ Oh, that there were a mediator between us;
    he would lay his hand on both of us,
³⁴     remove his rod from me,
        so his fury wouldn’t frighten me.
³⁵ Then I would speak—unafraid—
    for I’m not that way.