Job 16-19
New American Standard Bible
Job Says Friends Are Miserable Comforters
16 Then Job responded,
2 “I have heard many things like these;
[a](A)Miserable comforters are you all!
3 Is there no end to (B)windy words?
Or what provokes you that you answer?
4 I too could speak like you,
If only [b]I were in your place.
I could compose words against you
And (C)shake my head at you.
5 Or I could strengthen you with my mouth,
And the condolence of my lips could lessen your pain.
Job Says God Shattered Him
6 “If I speak, (D)my pain is not lessened,
And if I refrain, what pain leaves me?
7 But now He has (E)exhausted me;
You have laid (F)waste all my group of loved ones.
8 And you have shriveled me up,
[c](G)It has become a witness;
And my (H)infirmity rises up against me,
It testifies to my face.
9 His anger has (I)torn me and [d]hunted me down,
He has (J)gnashed at me with His teeth;
My (K)enemy [e]glares at me.
10 They have (L)gaped at me with their mouths,
They have [f](M)slapped me on the cheek with contempt;
They have (N)massed themselves against me.
11 God hands me over to criminals,
And tosses me into the hands of the wicked.
12 I was at ease, but (O)He shattered me,
And He has grasped me by my neck and shaken me to pieces;
He has also set me up as His (P)target.
13 His (Q)arrows surround me.
He splits my kidneys open without mercy;
He pours out (R)my bile on the ground.
14 He (S)breaks through me with breach after breach;
He (T)runs at me like a warrior.
15 I have sewed (U)sackcloth over my skin,
And (V)thrust my horn in the dust.
16 My face is flushed from (W)weeping,
(X)And deep darkness is on my eyelids,
17 Although there is no (Y)violence in my hands,
And (Z)my prayer is pure.
18 “Earth, do not cover my blood,
And may there be no resting place for my cry.
19 Even now, behold, (AA)my witness is in heaven,
And my [g]advocate is (AB)on high.
20 My friends are my scoffers;
(AC)My eye weeps to God,
21 That one might plead for a man with God
As a son of man with his neighbor!
22 For when a few years are past,
I shall go the way (AD)of no return.
Job Says He Has Become a Proverb
17 “My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished,
The [h](AE)grave is ready for me.
2 (AF)Mockers are certainly with me,
And my eye [i]gazes on their provocation.
3 “Make a pledge (AG)for me with Yourself;
Who is there that will [j]be my guarantor?
4 For You have [k](AH)kept their hearts away from understanding;
Therefore You will not exalt them.
5 He who (AI)informs against friends for a share of the spoils,
The (AJ)eyes of his children also will perish.
6 “But He has made me a (AK)proverb among the people,
And I am [l]one at whom people (AL)spit.
7 My eye has also become (AM)inexpressive because of grief,
And all my (AN)body parts are like a shadow.
8 The upright will be appalled at this,
And the (AO)innocent will stir himself up against the godless.
9 Nevertheless (AP)the righteous will hold to his way,
And (AQ)the one who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.
10 But come again all of [m]you now,
For I (AR)do not find a wise man among you.
11 My (AS)days are past, my plans are torn apart,
The wishes of my heart.
12 They make night into day, saying,
‘The light is near,’ in the presence of darkness.
13 If I hope for [n](AT)Sheol as my home,
I [o]make my bed in the darkness;
14 If I call to the (AU)grave, ‘You are my father’;
To the (AV)maggot, ‘my mother and my sister’;
15 Where then is (AW)my hope?
And who looks at my hope?
16 [p]Will it go down with me to Sheol?
Shall we together (AX)go down into the dust?”
Bildad Speaks of the Wicked
18 Then Bildad the Shuhite responded,
2 “How long will you hunt for words?
Show understanding, and then we can talk.
3 Why are we (AY)regarded as animals,
As stupid in your eyes?
4 [q]You who tear yourself in your anger—
Should the earth be abandoned for your sake,
Or the rock moved from its place?
5 “Indeed, the (AZ)light of the wicked goes out,
And the spark from his fire does not shine.
6 The light in his tent is (BA)darkened,
And his lamp goes out above him.
7 His [r]vigorous stride is shortened,
And his (BB)own plan brings him down.
8 For he is (BC)thrown into the net by his own feet,
And he steps on the webbing.
9 A snare seizes him by the heel,
And a trap snaps shut on him.
10 A noose for him is hidden in the ground,
And a trap for him on the pathway.
11 All around (BD)sudden terrors frighten him,
And (BE)harass him at every step.
12 His strength is (BF)famished,
And disaster is ready at his side.
13 [s]It devours parts of his skin,
The firstborn of death (BG)devours his [t]limbs.
14 He is (BH)torn from [u]the security of his tent,
And [v]they march him before the king of (BI)terrors.
15 [w]Nothing of his dwells in his tent;
(BJ)Brimstone is scattered on his home.
16 His (BK)roots are dried below,
And his (BL)branch withers above.
17 (BM)The memory of him perishes from the earth,
And he has no name abroad.
18 [x]He is driven from light (BN)into darkness,
And (BO)chased from the inhabited world.
19 He has no (BP)offspring or descendants among his people,
Nor any survivor where he resided.
20 Those in the west are appalled at (BQ)his [y]fate,
And those in the east are seized with horror.
21 Certainly these are the (BR)dwellings of the wicked,
And this is the place of him who does not know God.”
Job Feels Insulted
19 Then Job responded,
2 “How long will you torment [z]me
And crush me with words?
3 These ten times you have insulted me;
You are not ashamed to wrong me.
4 Even if I have truly done wrong,
My error stays with me.
5 If indeed you (BS)exalt yourselves against me
And prove my disgrace to me,
6 Know then that (BT)God has wronged me
And has surrounded me with (BU)His net.
Everything Is Against Him
7 “Behold, (BV)I cry, ‘Violence!’ but I get no answer;
I shout for help, but there is no justice.
8 He has (BW)blocked my way so that I cannot pass,
And He has put (BX)darkness on my paths.
9 He has (BY)stripped my honor from me
And removed the (BZ)crown from my head.
10 He (CA)breaks me down on every side, and I am gone;
And He has uprooted my (CB)hope (CC)like a tree.
11 He has also (CD)kindled His anger against me
And (CE)considered me as His enemy.
12 His (CF)troops come together
And (CG)build up their [aa]way against me
And camp around my tent.
13 “He has (CH)removed my brothers far from me,
And my (CI)acquaintances have completely turned away from me.
14 My relatives have failed,
And my (CJ)close friends have forgotten me.
15 Those who live in my house and my servant women consider me a stranger.
I am a foreigner in their sight.
16 I call to my servant, but he does not answer;
I have to implore his favor with my mouth.
17 My breath is offensive to my wife,
And I am loathsome to my own brothers.
18 Even young children despise me;
I stand up and they speak against me.
19 All [ab]my (CK)associates loathe me,
And those I love have turned against me.
20 My (CL)bone clings to my skin and my flesh,
And I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
21 Pity me, pity me, you friends of mine,
For the (CM)hand of God has struck me.
22 Why do you (CN)persecute me as God does,
And are not satisfied with my flesh?
Job Says My Redeemer Lives
23 “Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they were (CO)recorded in a book!
24 That with an iron stylus and lead
They were engraved in the rock forever!
25 Yet as for me, I know that (CP)my Redeemer lives,
And at the last, He will take His stand on the [ac]earth.
26 Even after my skin [ad]is destroyed,
Yet from my flesh I will (CQ)see God,
27 Whom I, on my part, shall behold for myself,
And whom my eyes will see, and not another.
My [ae]heart (CR)faints [af]within me!
28 If you say, ‘How shall we (CS)persecute him?’
And ‘[ag]What pretext for a case against him can we find?’
29 Then be afraid of (CT)the sword for yourselves,
For wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
So that you may know (CU)there is judgment.”
Footnotes
- Job 16:2 Lit Comforters of trouble
- Job 16:4 Lit your soul were in place of my soul
- Job 16:8 I.e., Job’s condition
- Job 16:9 Lit borne a grudge against me
- Job 16:9 Lit sharpens his eyes
- Job 16:10 Lit struck
- Job 16:19 Or witness
- Job 17:1 Lit graves are
- Job 17:2 Lit dwells
- Job 17:3 Lit strike hands with me
- Job 17:4 Lit hidden
- Job 17:6 Lit a spitting to the faces
- Job 17:10 As in some mss and ancient versions; MT them
- Job 17:13 I.e., the netherworld
- Job 17:13 Lit spread out
- Job 17:16 As in LXX; Heb possibly Let my limbs sink down to Sheol, since there is rest in the dust for all.
- Job 18:4 Lit The one who tears himself in his
- Job 18:7 Lit steps of his strength
- Job 18:13 Another reading is His skin is devoured by illness
- Job 18:13 Or parts
- Job 18:14 Lit his tent his trust
- Job 18:14 Lit you march or she marches
- Job 18:15 Another reading is Fire dwells in his tent
- Job 18:18 Lit They drive him...And chase him
- Job 18:20 Lit day
- Job 19:2 Lit my soul
- Job 19:12 I.e., siege ramp
- Job 19:19 Lit the men of my council
- Job 19:25 Lit dust
- Job 19:26 Lit which they have cut off
- Job 19:27 Lit kidneys
- Job 19:27 Lit in my loins
- Job 19:28 Or the root of the matter is found in him
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