Book - Job - Chapter = 9 --> NLT
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Then Job spoke again:
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"Yes, I know this is all true in principle. But how can a person be declared innocent in the eyes of God?
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If someone wanted to take God to court, would it be possible to answer him even once in a thousand times?
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For God is so wise and so mighty. Who has ever challenged him successfully?
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"Without warning, he moves the mountains, overturning them in his anger.
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He shakes the earth from its place, and its foundations tremble.
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If he commands it, the sun won't rise and the stars won't shine.
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He alone has spread out the heavens and marches on the waves of the sea.
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He made all the stars--the Bear, Orion, the Pleiades, and the constellations of the southern sky.
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His great works are too marvelous to understand. He performs miracles without number.
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"Yet when he comes near, I cannot see him. When he moves on, I do not see him go.
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If he sends death to snatch someone away, who can stop him? Who dares to ask him, `What are you doing?'
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And God does not restrain his anger. The mightiest forces against him are crushed beneath his feet.
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"And who am I, that I should try to answer God or even reason with him?
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Even if I were innocent, I would have no defense. I could only plead for mercy.
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And even if I summoned him and he responded, he would never listen to me.
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For he attacks me without reason, and he multiplies my wounds without cause.
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He will not let me catch my breath, but fills me instead with bitter sorrows.
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As for strength, he has it. As for justice, who can challenge him?
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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.
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Innocent or wicked, it is all the same to him. That is why I say, `He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.'
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He laughs when a plague suddenly kills the innocent.
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The whole earth is in the hands of the wicked, and God blinds the eyes of the judges and lets them be unfair. If not he, then who?
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"My life passes more swiftly than a runner. It flees away, filled with tragedy.
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It disappears like a swift boat, like an eagle that swoops down on its prey.
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If I decided to forget my complaints, if I decided to end my sadness and be cheerful,
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I would dread all the pain he would send. For I know you will not hold me innocent, O God.
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Whatever happens, I will be found guilty. So what's the use of trying?
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Even if I were to wash myself with soap and cleanse my hands with lye to make them absolutely clean,
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you would plunge me into a muddy ditch, and I would be so filthy my own clothing would hate me.
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"God is not a mortal like me, so I cannot argue with him or take him to trial.
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If only there were a mediator who could bring us together, but there is none.
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The mediator could make God stop beating me, and I would no longer live in terror of his punishment.
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Then I could speak to him without fear, but I cannot do that in my own strength.