A reading from the Book of Job 9:1-12, 14-16
Job answered his friends and said:
I know well that it is so;/ but how can a man be justified before God?/ Should one wish to contend with him,/ he could not answer him once in a thousand times./ God is wise in heart and mighty in strength;/ who has withstood him and remained unscathed?
He removes the mountains before they know it;/ he overturns them in his anger./ He shakes the earth out of its place,/ and the pillars beneath it tremble./ He commands the sun, and it rises not;/ he seals up the stars.
He alone stretches out the heavens/ and treads upon the crests of the sea./ He made the Bear and Orion,/ the Pleiades and the constellations of the south;/ He does great things past finding out,/ marvelous things beyond reckoning.
Should he come near me, I see him not;/ should he pass by, I am not aware of him;/ Should he seize me forcibly, who can say him nay?/ Who can say to him, “What are you doing?”
How much less shall I give him any answer,/ or choose out arguments against him!/ Even though I were right, I could not answer him,/ but should rather beg for what was due me./ If I appealed to him and he answered my call,/ I could not believe that he would hearken to my words.
The word of the Lord.
