Job 9 Bible in Basic English
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 And Job made answer and said,
1 Then Job answered,
2 Truly, I see that it is so: and how is it possible for a man to get his right before God?
2 “Truly I know that it is so, but how can man be just with God?
3 If a man was desiring to go to law with him, he would not be able to give him an answer to one out of a thousand questions.
3 If he is pleased to contend with him, he can’t answer him one time in a thousand.
4 He is wise in heart and great in strength: who ever made his face hard against him, and any good came of it?
4 God is wise in heart, and mighty in strength. Who has hardened himself against him and prospered?
5 It is he who takes away the mountains without their knowledge, overturning them in his wrath:
5 He removes the mountains, and they don’t know it, when he overturns them in his anger.
6 Who is moving the earth out of its place, so that its pillars are shaking:
6 He shakes the earth out of its place. Its pillars tremble.
7 Who gives orders to the sun, and it does not give its light; and who keeps the stars from shining.
7 He commands the sun and it doesn’t rise, and seals up the stars.
8 By whose hand the heavens were stretched out, and who is walking on the waves of the sea:
8 He alone stretches out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea.
9 Who made the Bear and Orion, and the Pleiades, and the store-houses of the south:
9 He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the rooms of the south.
10 Who does great things not to be searched out; yes, wonders without number.
10 He does great things past finding out; yes, marvelous things without number.
11 See, he goes past me and I see him not: he goes on before, but I have no knowledge of him.
11 Behold, he goes by me, and I don’t see him. He passes on also, but I don’t perceive him.
12 If he puts out his hand to take, by whom may it be turned back? who may say to him, What are you doing?
12 Behold, he snatches away. Who can hinder him? Who will ask him, ‘What are you doing?’
13 God's wrath may not be turned back; the helpers of Rahab were bent down under him.
13 “God will not withdraw his anger. The helpers of Rahab stoop under him.
14 How much less may I give an answer to him, using the right words in argument with him?
14 How much less will I answer him, and choose my words to argue with him?
15 Even if my cause was good, I would not be able to give an answer; I would make request for grace from him who was against me.
15 Though I were righteous, yet I wouldn’t answer him. I would make supplication to my judge.
16 If I had sent for him to be present, and he had come, I would have no faith that he would give ear to my voice.
16 If I had called, and he had answered me, yet I wouldn’t believe that he listened to my voice.
17 For I would be crushed by his storm, my wounds would be increased without cause.
17 For he breaks me with a storm, and multiplies my wounds without cause.
18 He would not let me take my breath, but I would be full of bitter grief.
18 He will not allow me to catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness.
19 If it is a question of strength, he says, Here I am! and if it is a question of a cause at law, he says, Who will give me a fixed day?
19 If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty! If of justice, ‘Who,’ says he, ‘will summon me?’
20 Though I was in the right, he would say that I was in the wrong; I have done no evil; but he says that I am a sinner.
20 Though I am righteous, my own mouth will condemn me. Though I am blameless, it will prove me perverse.
21 I have done no wrong; I give no thought to what becomes of me; I have no desire for life.
21 I am blameless. I don’t respect myself. I despise my life.
22 It is all the same to me; so I say, He puts an end to the sinner and to him who has done no wrong together.
22 “It is all the same. Therefore I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked.
23 If death comes suddenly through disease, he makes sport of the fate of those who have done no wrong.
23 If the scourge kills suddenly, he will mock at the trial of the innocent.
24 The land is given into the power of the evil-doer; the faces of its judges are covered; if not by him, then who has done it?
24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If not he, then who is it?
25 My days go quicker than a post-runner: they go in flight, they see no good.
25 “Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away. They see no good.
26 They go rushing on like reed-boats, like an eagle dropping suddenly on its food.
26 They have passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that swoops on the prey.
27 If I say, I will put my grief out of mind, I will let my face be sad no longer and I will be bright;
27 If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and cheer up,’
28 I go in fear of all my pains; I am certain that I will not be free from sin in your eyes.
28 I am afraid of all my sorrows. I know that you will not hold me innocent.
29 You will not let me be clear of sin! why then do I take trouble for nothing?
29 I will be condemned. Why then do I labor in vain?
30 If I am washed with snow water, and make my hands clean with soap;
30 If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye,
31 Then you will have me pushed into the dust, so that I will seem disgusting to my very clothing.
31 yet you will plunge me in the ditch. My own clothes will abhor me.
32 For he is not a man as I am, that I might give him an answer, that we might come together before a judge.
32 For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, that we should come together in judgment.
33 There is no one to give a decision between us, who might have control over us.
33 There is no umpire between us, that might lay his hand on us both.
34 Let him take away his rod from me and not send his fear on me:
34 Let him take his rod away from me. Let his terror not make me afraid;
35 Then I would say what is in my mind without fear of him; for there is no cause of fear in myself.
35 then I would speak, and not fear him, for I am not so in myself.
Cross references (33)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 2 Job 4:17; Romans 3:20; Psalm 143:2; Job 25:4; 1 Kings 8:46
- 3 Job 10:2; Job 40:2; 1 John 3:20; 1 John 1:8; Psalm 19:12
- 4 Job 36:5; Ephesians 3:20; Romans 11:33; Exodus 14:17–18; Job 9:19
- 5 Luke 21:11; Matthew 27:51; Habakkuk 3:10; Revelation 11:13; Revelation 16:18–20
- 6 Haggai 2:6; Psalm 75:3; Hebrews 12:26; Job 26:11; Isaiah 2:21
- 7 Isaiah 13:10; Amos 8:9; Luke 21:25–26; Job 37:7; Matthew 24:29
- 8 Isaiah 44:24; Isaiah 40:22; Psalm 104:2–3; Job 37:18; Zechariah 12:1
- 9 Amos 5:8; Genesis 1:16; Job 38:31–41; Psalm 147:4; Acts 28:13
- 10 Job 5:9; Psalm 72:18; Ephesians 3:20; Romans 11:33; Daniel 4:2–3
- 11 Job 23:8–9; Job 35:14; Psalm 77:19; 1 Timothy 6:16
- 12 Job 11:10; Isaiah 45:9; Job 23:13; Romans 11:34; Daniel 4:35
- 13 Psalm 89:10; Job 26:12; Isaiah 51:9; Isaiah 30:7; James 4:6–7
- 14 Job 11:4–5; Job 4:19; Job 9:3; Job 23:7; Job 23:4
- 15 Job 10:15; Job 8:5; Job 22:27; Job 10:2; 1 Peter 2:23
- 16 Exodus 6:9; Psalm 66:18–20; Luke 24:41; Job 29:24; Psalm 18:6
- 17 Job 16:14; Job 2:3; Job 34:6; Job 2:13; Ezekiel 13:13
- 18 Job 7:19; Lamentations 3:15; Hebrews 12:11; Job 3:20; Job 27:2
- 19 Job 9:32–33; Job 9:4; 1 Corinthians 1:25; Job 40:9–10; Matthew 6:13
- 20 Psalm 143:2; Job 34:35; Job 9:2; Psalm 130:3; Philippians 3:12–15
- 21 Job 1:1; Psalm 139:23–24; 1 Corinthians 4:4; Job 7:21; Proverbs 28:26
- 22 Ecclesiastes 9:1–3; Job 10:8; Ezekiel 21:3–4; Luke 13:2–4
- 23 Job 24:12; Hebrews 11:36–37; Ezekiel 14:19–21; Job 8:20; Job 2:7
- 24 Job 10:3; Psalm 73:3–7; Jeremiah 12:1–2; Job 21:7–15; 2 Samuel 15:30
- 25 Job 7:6–7; James 4:14; Psalm 90:9–10; Psalm 39:5; Esther 8:14
- 26 Habakkuk 1:8; Isaiah 18:2; Lamentations 4:19; Jeremiah 4:13; 2 Samuel 1:23
- 27 Job 7:13; Psalm 77:2–3; Job 7:11; Jeremiah 8:18
- 28 Psalm 119:120; Psalm 88:15–16; Job 9:20–21; Job 14:16; Job 10:14
- 29 Job 10:7; Job 10:2; Job 10:14–17; Job 21:16–17; Jeremiah 2:35
- 30 Jeremiah 2:22; Psalm 26:6; 1 John 1:8; Isaiah 1:16–18; Jeremiah 4:14
- 31 Job 15:6; Philippians 3:8–9; Job 9:20; Isaiah 59:6; Isaiah 64:6
- 32 Romans 9:20; Ecclesiastes 6:10; Psalm 143:2; Isaiah 45:9; Numbers 23:19
- 33 1 Samuel 2:25; 1 John 2:1–2; Job 9:19; Psalm 106:23; 1 Kings 3:16–28
- 34 Psalm 39:10; Job 33:7; Job 13:11; Psalm 90:11; Job 13:20–22
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
That which a certain scripture says: "The earth was delivered into the hands of the ungodly." The flesh was given into the power of the Jews; and this that thereby the bag, as it were, might be rent asunder, whence our purchase-price might run out.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 7 (1888)
And this Job said mystically, Which alone spread out the heaven, and walketh upon the sea as on firm ground; signifying to those who understand that He who when present here walked upon the sea is also He who aforetime made the heavens.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
"The earth is given into the hands of the wicked." What is meant by "earth" being "given into the hands of the ungodly"?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)
"I slept," because "I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it again." "I laid Me down and slept, and rose up again." Rage then the Jews; be "the earth given into the hands of the wicked," be the flesh left to the hands of persecutors, let them on wood suspend it, with nails …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)