Job’s Reply to Bildad
1 Then Job answered:
2 Yes, I know what you’ve said is true,
but how can a person be justified before God? s
3 If one wanted to take t him to court,
he could not answer God once in a thousand times. u
4 God is wise v and all-powerful.
Who has opposed him and come out unharmed?
5 He removes mountains without their knowledge,
overturning them in his anger. w
6 He shakes the earth from its place
so that its pillars tremble.
7 He commands the sun not to shine
and seals off the stars. x
8 He alone stretches out the heavens y
and treads on the waves of the sea.
9 He makes the stars: the Bear, Orion,
the Pleiades, z and the constellations of the southern sky.
10 He does great and unsearchable things,
wonders without number. a
11 If he passed by me, I wouldn’t see him; b
if he went by, I wouldn’t recognize him.
12 If he snatches something, who can stop him?
Who can ask him, “What are you doing? ” c
13 God does not hold back his anger;
Rahab’s d assistants cringe in fear beneath him!
14 How then can I answer him
or choose my arguments against him?
15 Even if I were in the right, I could not answer.
I could only beg my Judge for mercy. e
16 If I summoned him and he answered me,
I do not believe he would pay attention to what I said.
17 He batters me with a whirlwind f
and multiplies my wounds without cause.
18 He doesn’t let me catch my breath
but fills me with bitter experiences.
19 If it is a matter of strength, look, he is the powerful one! g
If it is a matter of justice, who can summon h him?
20 Even if I were in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; i
if I were blameless, my mouth would declare me guilty.
21 Though I am blameless,
I no longer care about myself;
I renounce my life. j
22 It is all the same. Therefore I say,
“He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.” k
23 When catastrophe brings sudden death,
he mocks the despair of the innocent.
24 The earth is handed over to the wicked;
he blindfolds its judges. l
If it isn’t he, then who is it?
25 My days fly by faster than a runner; ,m
they flee without seeing any good. n
26 They sweep by like boats made of papyrus,
like an eagle swooping down on its prey. o
27 If I said, “I will forget my complaint,
change my expression, and smile,”
28 I would still live in terror of all my pains. p
I know you will not acquit me. q
29 Since I will be found guilty, r
why should I struggle in vain?
30 If I wash myself with snow,
and cleanse my hands with lye,
31 then you dip me in a pit of mud,
and my own clothes despise me!
32 For he is not a man like me, that I can answer him, s
that we can take each other to court.
33 There is no mediator between us,
to lay his hand on both of us.
34 Let him take his rod away from me
so his terror will no longer frighten me. t
35 Then I would speak and not fear him.
But that is not the case; I am on my own.
9:1–4. In 9:2 Job acknowledges that what Bildad said in 8:20–22 is true, but then he echoes Eliphaz’s question from 4:17. Whereas Eliphaz made the point that no human can be regarded as just by God, Job’s experience prompts him to ask how an innocent man like himself can be vindicated before God if God is unwilling to bless him as the retribution principle insists he should. The second line of 9:3 is ambiguous. If the subject is God (see the CSB footnote), then God as the defendant would not answer Job, the human plaintiff, one time out of a thousand. Job cannot compel God to do so (9:4).
9:5–13. As the psalmist does in Ps 46, Job portrays God as towering over the natural world in a hymn extolling the wisdom and power of God (Jb 9:5–10; see also 26:7–14), which is followed by his reflection on that theme (9:11–13). Similar language is used in Pss 18:6–15 and 29:3–11 to speak of the Lord’s powerful intervention on behalf of his people, but Job derives no such comfort from the awesome power of God over nature.
9:14–20. Job is convinced that he is innocent, but he cannot envision how he could win in God’s court. He would not be able to answer God’s questions (9:14–15), secure a legal hearing (9:16), or maintain his stand under the barrage of God’s words (9:17–18). His insistence on his integrity and his recognition of God’s supremacy leave him with few alternatives. He cannot admit to sin, because that would mean abandoning what he knows to be true. He cannot compel God to declare him righteous. All he can do is plead to God against God. In this strange legal case that Job is contemplating, God is functioning as prosecutor, defendant, judge, and jury at the same time.
9:21–24. Unlike his friends, who demand that he confess his sin, Job consistently maintains that sin is not the issue prompting his catastrophe (9:21; cf. 10:7; 13:23; 23:11–12). But he cannot prove his innocence or get God to clear his name. He resigns himself to what appears inevitable. Job rejects the simplistic assertion by Bildad in 8:20 that God does not reject the blameless person or support evildoers (9:22). To Job, it appears that God destroys humans regardless of their moral condition, and this may be why God later describes Job as one who obscures his plans (38:2).
9:25–26. In one respect Job’s pain seems to slow his life to a crawl (7:4). But his life also seems to be slipping away quickly without any progress (9:25). He has the bitter sense that his life will soon be over with no resolution to his adversity or answers to his questions. Boats constructed from papyrus (9:26) were very light and fast (cf. Is 18:1–2), but they were also fragile and easily destroyed. Job’s life under affliction bears both of those traits.
9:27–35. As Job thinks through whether he should enter a legal complaint against God, he finds himself left with three unsatisfying alternatives. He could drop his complaint (9:27–28), but then he would not have the opportunity to be declared innocent by God. He could try to purify himself (9:29–31), but he senses that this would still not satisfy God’s requirements. Or he could find an impartial arbiter to mediate the case (9:32–35), but who could fill such a role?