CAN WE BE RIGHT WITH GOD?

² “Dominion and awe belong to God;
    he establishes order in the heights of heaven.
³ Can his forces be numbered?
    On whom does his light not rise?
⁴ How then can a mortal be righteous before God?
    How can one born of woman be pure?
⁵ If even the moon is not bright
    and the stars are not pure in his eyes,
⁶ how much less a mortal, who is but a maggot—
    a human being, who is only a worm!”

² “How you have helped the powerless!
    How you have saved the arm that is feeble!
³ What advice you have offered to one without wisdom!
    And what great insight you have displayed!
⁴ Who has helped you utter these words?
    And whose spirit spoke from your mouth?

⁵ “The dead are in deep anguish,
    those beneath the waters and all that live in them.
⁶ The realm of the dead is naked before God;
    Destruction^[a] lies uncovered.
⁷ He spreads out the northern skies over empty space;
    he suspends the earth over nothing.
⁸ He wraps up the waters in his clouds,
    yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.
⁹ He covers the face of the full moon,
    spreading his clouds over it.
¹⁰ He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters
    for a boundary between light and darkness.
¹¹ The pillars of the heavens quake,
    aghast at his rebuke.
¹² By his power he churned up the sea;
    by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces.
¹³ By his breath the skies became fair;
    his hand pierced the gliding serpent.
¹⁴ And these are but the outer fringe of his works;
    how faint the whisper we hear of him!
    Who then can understand the thunder of his power?”