Job: How Can I Contend with God?

Job says he knows that no one can be right before God in any straightforward contest, because God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. He then unfolds that greatness through images of mountains overturned, the earth shaken, the heavens stretched out, stars made, and the proud subdued beneath a God whose actions cannot be stopped or even fully seen.

T¹hen Job answered: ²“Yes, I know that it is so, ³If one wished to contend with God, ⁴God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. ⁵He moves mountains without their knowledge ⁶He shakes the earth from its place, ⁷He commands the sun not to shine; ⁸He alone stretches out the heavens ⁹He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, ¹⁰He does great things beyond searching out, ¹¹Were He to pass by me, I would not see Him; ¹²If He takes away, who can stop Him? ¹³God does not restrain His anger;

Because God is so overwhelming, Job says he could not answer him even if summoned, nor trust his own voice before him. He feels that blamelessness itself cannot secure him, since in his experience disaster falls without clear distinction and the world often looks as though it has been handed over to the wicked.

¹⁴How then can I answer Him ¹⁵For even if I were right, I could not answer. ¹⁶If I summoned Him and He answered me, ¹⁷For He would crush me with a tempest ¹⁸He does not let me catch my breath, ¹⁹If it is a matter of strength, ²⁰Even if I were righteous, my mouth would condemn me; ²¹Though I am blameless, I have no concern for myself; ²²It is all the same, and so I say, ²³When the scourge brings sudden death, ²⁴The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;

Job says his days race past too quickly for relief, and even if he tried to set aside his complaint and wash himself clean, he would still be swept back into guilt and dread. The chapter ends with his deepest impossibility: God is not a man like him, there is no mediator between them, and without someone to remove the rod of terror, he cannot speak freely.

²⁵My days are swifter than a runner; ²⁶They sweep by like boats of papyrus, ²⁷If I were to say, ‘I will forget my complaint ²⁸I would still dread all my sufferings; ²⁹Since I am already found guilty, ³⁰If I should wash myself with snow ³¹then You would plunge me into the pit, ³²For He is not a man like me, that I can answer Him, ³³Nor is there a mediator between us, ³⁴Let Him remove His rod from me, ³⁵Then I would speak without fear of Him.