1. Then Job answered:

2. Very well I know that it is so. But how can a mortal be just before God?

3. If one were to contend with him, not once in a thousand times would he answer.

4. His power is vast, his wisdom profound. Who has resisted him and come out unharmed?

5. He moves mountains before they are aware; he overturns them in his rage.

6. He makes the earth tremble and its pillars quake.

7. He commands the sun, and it does not shine; he seals off the light of the stars.

8. He alone stretches out the skies and treads on the waves of the seas.

9. He made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and every constellation.

10. His wonders are past all reckoning, his miracles beyond all counting.

11. He passes by, but I do not see him; he moves on, but I do not notice him.

12. If he snatches away, who can stop him? Who can say to him, "What are you doing?"

13. God does not turn back when angered; before him Rahab's cohorts cowered.

14. How then can I answer him and find words to argue with him?

15. If he does not answer when I am right, shall I plead with my judge for mercy?

16. Even if I appealed and he answered, I do not believe that he would have heard.

17. He who crushes me for a trifle and multiplies my hurt for no reason.

18. He does not give me time to breathe, but fills me with grief without pause.

19. If it is a contest of strength, he is mighty. If a matter of justice, who will summon him?

20. If I were innocent, my own mouth would condemn me; if blameless, it would pronounce me guilty.

21. But am I innocent, after all? I do not know, and so I find my life despicable.

22. It is all the same! And this I dare say: both blameless and wicked - he destroys.

23. When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks the despair of the innocent.

24. When a nation falls into a tyrant's hand, it is he who makes the judges blind. But if it is not he - who else then?

25. Swifter than a runner are my days; without a shred of joy they fly away.

26. They skim along like reed canoes or like eagles swooping on their prey.

27. If I resolve to forget my affliction, to smile and change my expression,

28. my trials make me fear for I know I shall be held accountable.

29. In any case if I am to be condemned, why should I bother in vain?

30. If I washed my body with snow and cleansed my hands with soap,

31. you would plunge me into the dung pit, and my very clothes would abhor me.

32. He is not a man like me that I might say, "let us go to court together."

33. Would that there were an arbiter between us, who could lay his hand upon both of us.

34. He would remove from me the rod of God and his terrors which frighten me.

35. But it is not so. Then I will speak to myself alone without fear.





“Não se desencoraje se você precisa trabalhar muito para colher pouco. Se você pensasse em quanto uma só alma custou a Jesus, você nunca reclamaria!” São Padre Pio de Pietrelcina