If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a {b} thousand.

(b) Of a thousand things, which God could lay to his charge, man cannot answer him one.

Wesley's Notes

9:3 One - One accusation among a thousand which God shall produce against him.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. If he-God

will contend with him-literally, "deign to enter into judgment."

he cannot answer, &c.-He (man) would not dare, even if he had a thousand answers in readiness to one question of God's, to utter one of them, from awe of His Majesty.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:1-13 In this answer Job declared that he did not doubt the justice of God, when he denied himself to be a hypocrite; for how should man be just with God? Before him he pleaded guilty of sins more than could be counted; and if God should contend with him in judgment, he could not justify one out of a thousand, of all the thoughts, words, and actions of his life; therefore he deserved worse than all his present sufferings. When Job mentions the wisdom and power of God, he forgets his complaints. We are unfit to judge of God's proceedings, because we know not what he does, or what he designs. God acts with power which no creature can resist. Those who think they have strength enough to help others, will not be able to help themselves against it.