First Reading: Job 9:1-12, 14-16

¹ Then Job answered:
² ”Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be just before God?
³ If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times.
⁴ He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength — who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded? —
⁵ he who removes mountains, and they know it not, when he overturns them in his anger;
⁶ who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble;
⁷ who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars;
⁸ who alone stretched out the heavens, and trampled the waves of the sea;
⁹ who made the Bear and Orion, the Plei’ades and the chambers of the south;
¹⁰ who does great things beyond understanding, and marvelous things without number.
¹¹ Lo, he passes by me, and I see him not; he moves on, but I do not perceive him.
¹² Behold, he snatches away; who can hinder him? Who will say to him, `What doest thou’?
¹⁴ How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him?
¹⁵ Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.
¹⁶ If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.