Job 19
Legacy Standard Bible
My Redeemer Lives
19 Then Job answered and said,
2 “How long will you torment my soul
And crush me with words?
3 These ten times you have dishonored me;
You are not ashamed that you wrong me.
4 [a]Even if I have truly erred,
My error lodges with me.
5 If truly you (A)magnify yourselves against me
And argue my disgrace to me,
6 Know then that (B)God has wronged me
And has closed (C)His net around me.
7 “Behold, (D)I cry, ‘Violence!’ but I get no answer;
I shout for help, but there is no justice.
8 He has (E)walled up my way so that I cannot pass,
And He has put (F)darkness on my paths.
9 He has (G)stripped my honor from me
And removed the (H)crown from my head.
10 He (I)breaks me down on every side, and I am gone;
And He has uprooted my (J)hope (K)like a tree.
11 He has also (L)kindled His anger against me
And (M)counted me as His adversary.
12 His (N)troops come together,
And (O)build up their [b]way against me
And camp around my tent.
13 “He has (P)removed my brothers far from me,
And my (Q)acquaintances are completely estranged from me.
14 My relatives have failed,
And my (R)familiar friends have forgotten me.
15 Those who sojourn in my house and my maidservants count 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 him with my mouth.
17 My breath is [c]offensive to my wife,
And I am loathsome to my own brothers.
18 Even young children reject me;
I rise up, and they speak against me.
19 All the men of my (S)counsel abhor me,
And those I love have turned against me.
20 My (T)bone clings to my skin and my flesh,
And I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
21 Pity me, pity me, O you my friends,
For the (U)hand of God has smitten me.
22 Why do you (V)persecute me as God does,
And are not satisfied with my flesh?
23 “Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they were (W)inscribed in a book!
24 That with an iron stylus and lead
They were engraved in the rock forever!
25 As for me, I know that (X)my [d]Redeemer lives,
And [e]at the last He will rise up over the dust of this world.
26 Even after my skin [f]is destroyed,
Yet from my flesh I shall (Y)behold God,
27 Whom I [g]myself shall behold,
And whom my eyes will see and not another.
My [h]heart (Z)faints [i]within me!
28 If you say, ‘How shall we (AA)persecute him?’
‘And the root of the matter is found in [j]him?’
29 Then be afraid of (AB)the sword for yourselves,
For wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
So that you may know (AC)there is judgment.”
Job 19
The Message
Job Answers Bildad
I Call for Help and No One Bothers
19 1-6 Job answered:
“How long are you going to keep battering away at me,
pounding me with these harangues?
Time after time after time you jump all over me.
Do you have no conscience, abusing me like this?
Even if I have, somehow or other, gotten off the track,
what business is that of yours?
Why do you insist on putting me down,
using my troubles as a stick to beat me?
Tell it to God—he’s the one behind all this,
he’s the one who dragged me into this mess.
7-12 “Look at me—I shout ‘Murder!’ and I’m ignored;
I call for help and no one bothers to stop.
God threw a barricade across my path—I’m stymied;
he turned out all the lights—I’m stuck in the dark.
He destroyed my reputation,
robbed me of all self-respect.
He tore me apart piece by piece—I’m ruined!
Then he yanked out hope by the roots.
He’s angry with me—oh, how he’s angry!
He treats me like his worst enemy.
He has launched a major campaign against me,
using every weapon he can think of,
coming at me from all sides at once.
I Know That God Lives
13-20 “God alienated my family from me;
everyone who knows me avoids me.
My relatives and friends have all left;
houseguests forget I ever existed.
The servant girls treat me like a deadbeat off the street,
look at me like they’ve never seen me before.
I call my attendant and he ignores me,
ignores me even though I plead with him.
My wife can’t stand to be around me anymore.
I’m repulsive to my family.
Even street urchins despise me;
when I come out, they taunt and jeer.
Everyone I’ve ever been close to abhors me;
my dearest loved ones reject me.
I’m nothing but a bag of bones;
my life hangs by a thread.
21-22 “Oh, friends, dear friends, take pity on me.
God has come down hard on me!
Do you have to be hard on me, too?
Don’t you ever tire of abusing me?
23-27 “If only my words were written in a book—
better yet, chiseled in stone!
Still, I know that God lives—the One who gives me back my life—
and eventually he’ll take his stand on earth.
And I’ll see him—even though I get skinned alive!—
see God myself, with my very own eyes.
Oh, how I long for that day!
28-29 “If you’re thinking, ‘How can we get through to him,
get him to see that his trouble is all his own fault?’
Forget it. Start worrying about yourselves.
Worry about your own sins and God’s coming judgment,
for judgment is most certainly on the way.”
Legacy Standard Bible Copyright ©2021 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org For Permission to Quote Information visit https://www.LSBible.org.
The New Testament in Modern English by J.B Phillips copyright © 1960, 1972 J. B. Phillips. Administered by The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England. Used by Permission.
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson