Should anyone try to speak with you
when you are exhausted?
Yet who can keep from speaking?

“Can a person be more righteous than God,
or a man more pure than his Maker?”

How painful honest words can be!
But what does your rebuke prove?

Do you think that you can disprove my words
or that a despairing man’s words are mere wind?

Is there injustice on my tongue
or can my palate not taste disaster?

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The eye of anyone who looks on me
will no longer see me.
Your eyes will look for me, but I will be gone.

Why not forgive my sin
and pardon my transgression?
For soon I will lie down in the grave.
You will eagerly seek me, but I will be gone.

Yes, I know what you’ve said is true,
but how can a person be justified before God?

If He snatches something, who can stop Him?
Who can ask Him, “What are You doing?”

How then can I answer Him
or choose my arguments against Him?

If it is a matter of strength, look, He is the Mighty One!
If it is a matter of justice, who can summon Him?

For He is not a man like me, that I can answer Him,
that we can take each other to court.

even though You know that I am not wicked
and that there is no one who can deliver from Your hand?

Are my days not few? Stop it!
Leave me alone, so that I can smile a little

Should your babbling put others to silence,
so that you can keep on ridiculing
with no one to humiliate you?

Can you fathom the depths of God
or discover the limits of the Almighty?

They are higher than the heavens—what can you do?
They are deeper than Sheol—what can you know?

If He passes by and throws someone in prison
or convenes a court, who can stop Him?

But a stupid man will gain understanding
as soon as a wild donkey is born a man!

Yes, this will result in my deliverance,
for no godless person can appear before Him.

Can anyone indict me?
If so, I will be silent and die.

Then call, and I will answer,
or I will speak, and You can respond to me.

Who can produce something pure from what is impure?
No one!

look away from him and let him rest
so that he can enjoy his day like a hired hand.

where then is my hope?
Who can see any hope for me?

How long until you stop talking?
Show some sense, and then we can talk.

Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him,
and what will we gain by pleading with Him?”

Can anyone teach God knowledge,
since He judges the exalted ones?

So how can you offer me such futile comfort?
Your answers are deceptive.

Can a man be of any use to God?
Can even a wise man be of use to Him?

Yet you say: “What does God know?
Can He judge through thick darkness?

They were the ones who said to God, “Leave us alone!”
and “What can the Almighty do to us?”

But He is unchangeable; who can oppose Him?
He does what He desires.

He gives them a sense of security, so they can rely on it,
but His eyes watch over their ways.

They are exalted for a moment, then they are gone;
they are brought low and shrivel up like everything else.
They wither like heads of grain.

If this is not true, then who can prove me a liar
and show that my speech is worthless?

Can His troops be numbered?
Does His light not shine on everyone?

How can a person be justified before God?
How can one born of woman be pure?

These are but the fringes of His ways;
how faint is the word we hear of Him!
Who can understand His mighty thunder?

He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more;
when he opens his eyes, it is gone.

An east wind picks him up, and he is gone;
it carries him away from his place.

But where can wisdom be found,
and where is understanding located?

No man can know its value,
since it cannot be found in the land of the living.

If only I could be as in months gone by,
in the days when God watched over me,

Job’s friends are dismayed and can no longer answer;
words have left them.

I must speak so that I can find relief;
I must open my lips and respond.

Refute me if you can.
Prepare your case against me; take your stand.

There is no darkness, no deep darkness,
where evildoers can hide themselves.

But when God is silent, who can declare Him guilty?
When He hides His face, who can see Him?
Yet He watches over both individuals and nations,

Can your wealth or all your physical exertion
keep you from distress?

Can anyone understand how the clouds spread out
or how the thunder roars from God’s pavilion?

can you help God spread out the skies
as hard as a cast metal mirror?

Should He be told that I want to speak?
Can a man speak when he is confused?

so you can lead it back to its border?
Are you familiar with the paths to its home?

Can you fasten the chains of the Pleiades
or loosen the belt of Orion?

Can you bring out the constellations in their season
and lead the Bear and her cubs?

Do you know the laws of heaven?
Can you impose its authority on earth?

Can you command the clouds
so that a flood of water covers you?

Can you send out lightning bolts, and they go?
Do they report to you: “Here we are”?

Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?
Or who can tilt the water jars of heaven

Can you hunt prey for a lioness
or satisfy the appetite of young lions

Can you count the months they are pregnant
so you can know the time they give birth?

Can you hold the wild ox to a furrow by its harness?
Will it plow the valleys behind you?

Can you depend on it because its strength is great?
Would you leave it to do your hard work?

Can you trust the wild ox to harvest your grain
and bring it to your threshing floor?

I am so insignificant. How can I answer You?
I place my hand over my mouth.

I have spoken once, and I will not reply;
twice, but now I can add nothing.

Do you have an arm like God’s?
Can you thunder with a voice like His?

Then I will confess to you
that your own right hand can deliver you.

He is the foremost of God’s works;
only his Maker can draw the sword against him.

Can anyone capture him while he looks on,
or pierce his nose with snares?

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Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook
or tie his tongue down with a rope?

Can you put a cord through his nose
or pierce his jaw with a hook?

Will he make a covenant with you
so that you can take him as a slave forever?

Can you play with him like a bird
or put him on a leash for your girls?

Can you fill his hide with harpoons
or his head with fishing spears?

No one is ferocious enough to rouse Leviathan;
who then can stand against Me?

Who can strip off his outer covering?
Who can penetrate his double layer of armor?

Who can open his jaws,
surrounded by those terrifying teeth?

One scale is so close to another
that no air can pass between them.

No arrow can make him flee;
slingstones become like stubble to him.

I know that You can do anything
and no plan of Yours can be thwarted.