I cannot argue with you, nevertheless…
1 ① Then Job answered:
2Very well I know that it is so.
But how can a mortal be just before God?
3If one were to contend with him,
not once in a thousand times would he answer.
4His power is vast, his wisdom profound.
Who has resisted him and come out unharmed?
5He moves mountains before they are aware;
he overturns them in his rage.
6He makes the earth tremble
and its pillars quake.
7He commands the sun, and it does not shine;
he seals off the light of the stars.
8He alone stretches out the skies
and treads on the waves of the seas.
9He made the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and every constellation.
10His wonders are past all reckoning,
his miracles beyond all counting.
11He passes by, but I do not see him;
he moves on, but I do not notice him.
12If he snatches away, who can stop him?
Who can say to him, “What are you doing?”
13God does not turn back when angered;
before him Rahab’s cohorts cowered.
14How then can I answer him
and find words to argue with him?
15If he does not answer when I am right,
shall I plead with my judge for mercy?
16Even if I appealed and he answered,
I do not believe that he would have heard.
17He who crushes me for a trifle
and multiplies my hurt for no reason.
18He does not give me time to breathe,
but fills me with grief without pause.
19If it is a contest of strength, he is mighty.
If a matter of justice, who will summon him?
20If I were innocent, my own mouth would condemn me;
if blameless, it would pronounce me guilty.
21But am I innocent, after all? I do not know,
and so I find my life despicable.
22It is all the same! And this I dare say:
both blameless and wicked – he destroys.
23When disaster brings sudden death,
he mocks the despair of the innocent.
24When a nation falls into a tyrant’s hand,
it is he who makes the judges blind.
But if it is not he – who else then?
25Swifter than a runner are my days;
without a shred of joy they fly away.
26They skim along like reed canoes
or like eagles swooping on their prey.
27If I resolve to forget my affliction,
to smile and change my expression,
28my trials make me fear
for I know I shall be held accountable.
29In any case if I am to be condemned,
why should I bother in vain?
30If I washed my body with snow
and cleansed my hands with soap,
31you would plunge me into the dung pit,
and my very clothes would abhor me.
32He is not a man like me that I might say,
“let us go to court together.”
33Would that there were an arbiter between us,
who could lay his hand upon both of us.
34He would remove from me the rod of God
and his terrors which frighten me.
35But it is not so. Then I will speak
to myself alone without fear.
- Job 9,1 Job is upset before an inaccessible God. The Creator's greatness does not console the one who suffers without being heard. The misfortune of a single just one distorts creation. Again, Job not only questions evil, but the very situation created by human existence with its freedom. The God who made us free persons must also be a Person, and as long as he does not speak to us, his silence may be interpreted as a refusal to dialogue and a proof of indifference toward us. If I were innocent, my own mouth would condemn me (v. 20). Job reminds us of those notorious trials where militants, unjustly accused by their own party, come to admit their guilt spontaneously. Similarly, many times a single mishap would be enough to make us feel sinful. Can a mortal be just before God (v. 2)? The same question is found in 4:17 and 22:2. This guilt feeling and the opposite feeling of hostility towards God are two sides of the same truth: the human condition is unacceptable as long as God makes people who cannot find him. You granted me life in your grace. Job cannot deny that God is concerned about his creatures, and he remembers the wonders God achieves in the pregnant mother. These attentions only open the way for his demands: gifts coming to us from people above arouse our suspicions more than our gratitude: I know what was in your mind (10:13). After years without thinking, people begin to reflect and it is then that the absence of the Creator may prepare them for rebellion.
