Atlas Biblica

    Job · 35 verses

    Job 9

    Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

    The chapter

    What happens here

    Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

    Job pictures a universe in which mountains do not even know when God moves them, and a man cannot answer Him once in a thousand attempts.

    The God who passes unseenvv. 1–18

    Job begins with the old difficulty in its starkest form: how can a mortal be righteous before God, when God is wise, strong, and entirely beyond reply? Mountains are overturned without their knowledge, the earth is shaken from its place, the sun is told not to shine, and the stars are sealed away. God crosses the heavens and the sea, makes the constellations, and passes by without being seen. Even the number of possible answers has been made absurdly small: one in a thousand. Job can only beg his Judge for mercy, yet imagines that even an answer would bring a tempest and more wounds.

    A court with no middle placevv. 19–35

    The argument turns from God's vastness to Job's own case. Strength belongs to God, justice cannot summon Him, and even a blameless mouth would condemn its owner. Job says that the blameless and wicked are destroyed alike, while the earth is placed in the hand of the wicked and its judges blindfolded. His days flee like papyrus boats and a diving eagle. He considers changing his face and smiling, washing himself with snow and lye, but the scene only grows stranger: his own clothes would despise him, and he would still be plunged into the pit. What he lacks is not soap, courage, or eloquence, but a mediator who could stand between the two parties. So he ends alone.

    The text

    Read it

    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. Job 9:1Then Job answered:

    2. Job 9:2“Yes, I know that it is so, but how can a mortal be righteous before God?

    3. Job 9:3If one wished to contend with God, he could not answer Him one time out of a thousand.

    4. Job 9:4God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has resisted Him and prospered?

    5. Job 9:5He moves mountains without their knowledge and overturns them in His anger.

    6. Job 9:6He shakes the earth from its place, so that its foundations tremble.

    7. Job 9:7He commands the sun not to shine; He seals off the stars.

    8. Job 9:8He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.

    9. Job 9:9He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, of the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.

    10. Job 9:10He does great things beyond searching out, and wonders without number.

    11. Job 9:11Were He to pass by me, I would not see Him; were He to move, I would not recognize Him.

    12. Job 9:12If He takes away, who can stop Him? Who dares to ask Him, ‘What are You doing?’

    13. Job 9:13God does not restrain His anger; the helpers of Rahab cower beneath Him.

    14. Job 9:14How then can I answer Him or choose my arguments against Him?

    15. Job 9:15For even if I were right, I could not answer. I could only beg my Judge for mercy.

    16. Job 9:16If I summoned Him and He answered me, I do not believe He would listen to my voice.

    17. Job 9:17For He would crush me with a tempest and multiply my wounds without cause.

    18. Job 9:18He does not let me catch my breath, but overwhelms me with bitterness.

    19. Job 9:19If it is a matter of strength, He is indeed mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon Him?

    20. Job 9:20Even if I were righteous, my mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, it would declare me guilty.

    21. Job 9:21Though I am blameless, I have no concern for myself; I despise my own life.

    22. Job 9:22It is all the same, and so I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’

    23. Job 9:23When the scourge brings sudden death, He mocks the despair of the innocent.

    24. Job 9:24The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; He blindfolds its judges. If it is not He, then who is it?

    25. Job 9:25My days are swifter than a runner; they flee without seeing good.

    26. Job 9:26They sweep by like boats of papyrus, like an eagle swooping down on its prey.

    27. Job 9:27If I were to say, ‘I will forget my complaint and change my expression and smile,’

    28. Job 9:28I would still dread all my sufferings; I know that You will not acquit me.

    29. Job 9:29Since I am already found guilty, why should I labor in vain?

    30. Job 9:30If I should wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye,

    31. Job 9:31then You would plunge me into the pit, and even my own clothes would despise me.

    32. Job 9:32For He is not a man like me, that I can answer Him, that we can take each other to court.

    33. Job 9:33Nor is there a mediator between us, to lay his hand upon us both.

    34. Job 9:34Let Him remove His rod from me, so that His terror will no longer frighten me.

    35. Job 9:35Then I would speak without fear of Him. But as it is, I am on my own.’’

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

    Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 361 passages were voted onto 33 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 10Job 5:9the One who does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number.
    • 10Psalms 72:18Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds.
    • 10Ephesians 3:20Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us,
    • 10Romans 11:33O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!
    • 10Psalms 136:4He alone does great wonders. His loving devotion endures forever.
    • 10Daniel 4:2–3I am pleased to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me.
    • 10Ecclesiastes 3:11He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom the work that God has done from beginning to end.
    • 10Isaiah 40:26–28Lift up your eyes on high: Who created all these? He leads forth the starry host by number; He calls each one by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
    • 11Job 23:8–9If I go east, He is not there, and if I go west, I cannot find Him.
    • 10Exodus 15:11Who among the gods is like You, O LORD? Who is like You—majestic in holiness, revered with praises, performing wonders?
    • 10Psalms 71:15My mouth will declare Your righteousness and Your salvation all day long, though I cannot know their full measure.
    • 9Amos 5:8He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth—the LORD is His name—
    • 10Job 37:23The Almighty is beyond our reach; He is exalted in power! In His justice and great righteousness He does not oppress.
    • 11Job 35:14How much less, then, when you say that you do not see Him, that your case is before Him and you must wait for Him,
    • 2Job 4:17‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker?
    • 11Psalms 77:19Your path led through the sea, Your way through the mighty waters, but Your footprints were not to be found.

    Onward

    Keep reading

    Next chapterJob 1022 verses.Named hereJobEverything the graph connects to this name.BookJobAll 42 chapters.Every bookThe Bible66 books, 1,189 chapters.