Job 19
Christian Standard Bible
Job’s Reply to Bildad
19 Then Job answered:
2 How long will you torment me
and crush me with words?
3 You have humiliated me ten times now,
and you mistreat[a] me without shame.(A)
4 Even if it is true that I have sinned,
my mistake concerns only[b] me.
5 If you really want to appear superior(B) to me
and would use my disgrace as evidence against me,
6 then understand that it is God who has wronged me
and caught me in his net.(C)
7 I cry out, “Violence!” but get no response;(D)
I call for help, but there is no justice.
8 He has blocked(E) my way so that I cannot pass through;
he has veiled my paths with darkness.(F)
9 He has stripped me of my honor
and removed the crown from my head.
10 He tears me down on every side so that I am ruined.[c]
He uproots my hope like a tree.(G)
11 His anger(H) burns against me,
and he regards me as one of his enemies.(I)
12 His troops advance together;
they construct a ramp[d] against me
and camp(J) around my tent.
13 He has removed my brothers from me;
my acquaintances have abandoned me.(K)
14 My relatives stop coming by,
and my close friends have forgotten me.
15 My house guests[e] and female servants regard me as a stranger;
I am a foreigner in their sight.(L)
16 I call for my servant, but he does not answer,
even if I beg him with my own mouth.
17 My breath is offensive to my wife,
and my own family[f] finds me repulsive.
18 Even young boys scorn me.
When I stand up, they mock me.(M)
19 All of my best friends[g] despise me,(N)
and those I love have turned against me.(O)
20 My skin and my flesh cling to my bones;
I have escaped with only the skin of my teeth.
21 Have mercy on me, my friends,(P) have mercy,
for God’s hand(Q) has struck me.(R)
22 Why do you persecute me as God does?
Will you never get enough of my flesh?
23 I wish that my words were written down,
that they were recorded on a scroll
24 or were inscribed in stone forever
by an iron stylus and lead!
25 But I know that my Redeemer lives,[h](S)
and at the end he will stand on the dust.(T)
26 Even after my skin has been destroyed,[i]
yet I will see God in[j] my flesh.(U)
27 I will see him myself;
my eyes will look at him, and not as a stranger.[k]
My heart longs[l] within me.(V)
28 If you say, “How will we pursue him,
since the root of the problem lies with him?” [m]
29 then be afraid of the sword,
because wrath brings punishment by the sword,(W)
so that you may know there is a judgment.
Footnotes
- 19:3 Hb obscure
- 19:4 Lit mistake lives with
- 19:10 Lit gone
- 19:12 Lit they raise up their way
- 19:15 Or The resident aliens in my household
- 19:17 Lit and the sons of my belly
- 19:19 Lit of the men of my council
- 19:25 Or know my living Redeemer
- 19:26 Lit skin which they destroyed, or skin they destroyed in this way
- 19:26 Or apart from
- 19:27 Or not a stranger
- 19:27 Lit My kidneys grow faint
- 19:28 Some Hb mss, LXX, Vg; other Hb mss read me
Job 19
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Job Replies: I Know That My Vindicator Lives
19 Then Job answered:
2 “How long will you torment me
and break me in pieces with words?
3 These ten times you have cast reproach upon me;
are you not ashamed to wrong me?
4 And even if it is true that I have erred,
my error remains with me.(A)
5 If indeed you magnify yourselves against me
and make my humiliation an argument against me,(B)
6 know then that God has put me in the wrong
and closed his net around me.(C)
7 Even when I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I am not answered;
I call aloud, but there is no justice.(D)
8 He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass,
and he has set darkness upon my paths.(E)
9 He has stripped my glory from me
and taken the crown from my head.(F)
10 He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone;
he has uprooted my hope like a tree.(G)
11 He has kindled his wrath against me
and counts me as his adversary.(H)
12 His troops come on together;
they have thrown up siegeworks[a] against me
and encamp around my tent.(I)
13 “He has put my family far from me,
and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
14 My relatives and my close friends have failed me;
15 the guests in my house have forgotten me;
my female servants count me as a stranger;
I have become an alien in their eyes.(J)
16 I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;
I must myself plead with him.
17 My breath is repulsive to my wife;
I am loathsome to my own family.
18 Even young children despise me;
when I rise, they talk against me.(K)
19 All my intimate friends abhor me,
and those whom I love have turned against me.(L)
20 My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh,
and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.(M)
21 Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends,
for the hand of God has touched me!(N)
22 Why do you, like God, pursue me,
never satisfied with my flesh?(O)
23 “O that my words were written down!
O that they were inscribed in a book!(P)
24 O that with an iron pen and with lead
they were engraved on a rock forever!(Q)
25 For I know that my vindicator[b] lives
and that in the end he will stand upon the earth;(R)
26 and after my skin has been destroyed,
then in my flesh I shall see God,(S)
27 whom I shall see on my side,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me!(T)
28 If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’
and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’(U)
29 be afraid of the sword,
for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
so that you may know there is a judgment.”(V)
The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.