Job 9

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¹Then Job answered and said: ²“Truly I know it is so, But how can a man be righteous before God? ✦ ³If one wished to contend with Him, He could not answer Him one time out of a thousand. ✦ ⁴God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has hardened himself against Him and prospered? ✦ ⁵He removes the mountains, and they do not know When He overturns them in His anger; ✦ ⁶He shakes the earth out of its place, And its pillars tremble; ✦ ⁷He commands the sun, and it does not rise; He seals off the stars; ✦ ⁸He alone spreads out the heavens, And treads on the waves of the sea; ✦ ⁹He made the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, And the chambers of the south; ✦ ¹⁰He does great things past finding out, Yes, wonders without number. ✦ ¹¹If He goes by me, I do not see Him; If He moves past, I do not perceive Him; ✦ ¹²If He takes away, who can hinder Him? Who can say to Him, ‘What are You doing?’ ✦ ¹³God will not withdraw His anger, The allies of the proud lie prostrate beneath Him. ✦ ¹⁴“How then can I answer Him, And choose my words to reason with Him? ✦ ¹⁵For though I were righteous, I could not answer Him; I would beg mercy of my Judge. ✦ ¹⁶If I called and He answered me, I would not believe that He was listening to my voice. ✦ ¹⁷For He crushes me with a tempest, And multiplies my wounds without cause. ✦ ¹⁸He will not allow me to catch my breath, But fills me with bitterness. ✦ ¹⁹If it is a matter of strength, indeed He is strong; And if of justice, who will appoint my day in court? ✦ ²⁰Though I were righteous, my own mouth would condemn me; Though I were blameless, it would prove me perverse. ✦ ²¹“I am blameless, yet I do not know myself; I despise my life. ✦ ²²It is all one thing; Therefore I say, ‘He destroys the blameless and the wicked.’ ✦ ²³If the scourge slays suddenly, He laughs at the plight of the innocent. ✦ ²⁴The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If it is not He, who else could it be? ✦ ²⁵“Now my days are swifter than a runner; They flee away, they see no good. ✦ ²⁶They pass by like swift ships, Like an eagle swooping on its prey. ✦ ²⁷If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face and wear a smile,’ ✦ ²⁸I am afraid of all my sufferings; I know that You will not hold me innocent. ✦ ²⁹If I am condemned, Why then do I labor in vain? ✦ ³⁰If I wash myself with snow water, And cleanse my hands with soap, ✦ ³¹Yet You will plunge me into the pit, And my own clothes will abhor me. ✦ ³²“For He is not a man, as I am, That I may answer Him, And that we should go to court together. ✦ ³³Nor is there any mediator between us, Who may lay his hand on us both. ✦ ³⁴Let Him take His rod away from me, And do not let dread of Him terrify me. ✦ ³⁵Then I would speak and not fear Him, But it is not so with me.

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Where this chapter connects

Job 9 ·12 Job 10 ·9 Job 33 ·8 Job 23 ·8 Job 7 ·7 Job 38 ·6 Job 34 ·6 Dan 4 ·5

Christ at the center

Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.

How Job 9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Job 9YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Job 9David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Job 9Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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