Dual Panel1Job continued by saying:
2"So what's new? I know all this. The question is, 'How can mere mortals get right with God?'
3If we wanted to bring our case before him, what chance would we have? Not one in a thousand!
4God's wisdom is so deep, God's power so immense, who could take him on and come out in one piece?
5He moves mountains before they know what's happened, flips them on their heads on a whim.
6He gives the earth a good shaking up, rocks it down to its very foundations.
7He tells the sun, 'Don't shine,' and it doesn't; he pulls the blinds on the stars.
8All by himself he stretches out the heavens and strides on the waves of the sea.
9He designed the Big Dipper and Orion, the Pleiades and Alpha Centauri.
10We'll never comprehend all the great things he does; his miracle-surprises can't be counted.
11Somehow, though he moves right in front of me, I don't see him; quietly but surely he's active, and I miss it.
12If he steals you blind, who can stop him? Who's going to say, 'Hey, what are you doing?'
13God doesn't hold back on his anger; even dragon-bred monsters cringe before him.
14"So how could I ever argue with him, construct a defense that would influence God?
15Even though I'm innocent I could never prove it; I can only throw myself on the Judge's mercy.
16If I called on God and he himself answered me, then, and only then, would I believe that he'd heard me.
17As it is, he knocks me about from pillar to post, beating me up, black and blue, for no good reason.
18He won't even let me catch my breath, piles bitterness upon bitterness.
19If it's a question of who's stronger, he wins, hands down! If it's a question of justice, who'll serve him the subpoena?
20Even though innocent, anything I say incriminates me; blameless as I am, my defense just makes me sound worse.
21"Believe me, I'm blameless. I don't understand what's going on. I hate my life!
22Since either way it ends up the same, I can only conclude that God destroys the good right along with the bad.
23When calamity hits and brings sudden death, he folds his arms, aloof from the despair of the innocent.
24He lets the wicked take over running the world, he installs judges who can't tell right from wrong. If he's not responsible, who is?
25"My time is short--what's left of my life races off too fast for me to even glimpse the good.
26My life is going fast, like a ship under full sail, like an eagle plummeting to its prey.
27Even if I say, 'I'll put all this behind me, I'll look on the bright side and force a smile,'
28All these troubles would still be like grit in my gut since it's clear you're not going to let up.
29The verdict has already been handed down--'Guilty!'--so what's the use of protests or appeals?
30Even if I scrub myself all over and wash myself with the strongest soap I can find,
31It wouldn't last--you'd push me into a pigpen, or worse, so nobody could stand me for the stink.
32"God and I are not equals; I can't bring a case against him. We'll never enter a courtroom as peers.
33How I wish we had an arbitrator to step in and let me get on with life--
34To break God's death grip on me, to free me from this terror so I could breathe again.
35Then I'd speak up and state my case boldly. As things stand, there is no way I can do it.