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Job’s Sixth Speech: A Response to Bildad

19 Then Job spoke again:

“How long will you torture me?
    How long will you try to crush me with your words?
You have already insulted me ten times.
    You should be ashamed of treating me so badly.
Even if I have sinned,
    that is my concern, not yours.
You think you’re better than I am,
    using my humiliation as evidence of my sin.
But it is God who has wronged me,
    capturing me in his net.[a]

“I cry out, ‘Help!’ but no one answers me.
    I protest, but there is no justice.
God has blocked my way so I cannot move.
    He has plunged my path into darkness.
He has stripped me of my honor
    and removed the crown from my head.
10 He has demolished me on every side, and I am finished.
    He has uprooted my hope like a fallen tree.
11 His fury burns against me;
    he counts me as an enemy.
12 His troops advance.
    They build up roads to attack me.
    They camp all around my tent.

13 “My relatives stay far away,
    and my friends have turned against me.
14 My family is gone,
    and my close friends have forgotten me.
15 My servants and maids consider me a stranger.
    I am like a foreigner to them.
16 When I call my servant, he doesn’t come;
    I have to plead with him!
17 My breath is repulsive to my wife.
    I am rejected by my own family.
18 Even young children despise me.
    When I stand to speak, they turn their backs on me.
19 My close friends detest me.
    Those I loved have turned against me.
20 I have been reduced to skin and bones
    and have escaped death by the skin of my teeth.

21 “Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy,
    for the hand of God has struck me.
22 Must you also persecute me, like God does?
    Haven’t you chewed me up enough?

23 “Oh, that my words could be recorded.
    Oh, that they could be inscribed on a monument,
24 carved with an iron chisel and filled with lead,
    engraved forever in the rock.

25 “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
    and he will stand upon the earth at last.
26 And after my body has decayed,
    yet in my body I will see God![b]
27 I will see him for myself.
    Yes, I will see him with my own eyes.
    I am overwhelmed at the thought!

28 “How dare you go on persecuting me,
    saying, ‘It’s his own fault’?
29 You should fear punishment yourselves,
    for your attitude deserves punishment.
    Then you will know that there is indeed a judgment.”

Footnotes

  1. 19:6 Or for I am like a city under siege.
  2. 19:26 Or without my body I will see God. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.

Job’s Sixth Speech: A Response to Bildad

19 Then[a] Job answered and said,

How long[b] will you[c] torment me[d]
and crush me with words?
These ten times you[e] have disgraced me;
you[f] are not ashamed that you[g] have attacked[h] me.
And what is more, if I have truly erred,
my error remains with me.
If indeed you[i] must magnify yourselves against me,
and you[j] must let my disgrace argue against me,
know then that God has wronged me
and has surrounded me with his net.
“Look, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but[k] I am not answered;
I cry out, but[l] there is no justice.
He has walled up my way so that[m] I cannot pass;
and he has set darkness upon my paths.
He has taken my glory from me,
and he has removed the crown of[n] my head.
10 He has broken me down all around, and I am gone.
And he has uprooted my hope like a tree,
11 and he has kindled his wrath against me,
and he has counted me as one of his foes.[o]
12 His troops have come together
and have thrown up their rampart[p] against me
and have encamped around my tent.
13 “He has removed my kinsfolk from me,
and my acquaintances have only[q] turned aside from me.
14 My relatives have failed,
and my close friends have forgotten me.
15 The sojourners in[r] my house and my slave women count me as a stranger;
I have become a foreigner in their eyes.
16 I call to my servant, but[s] he does not answer;
I must personally[t] plead with him.
17 My breath is repulsive to my wife,
and I am loathsome to my own family.[u]
18 Little boys also despise me;
when I rise, then[v] they talk against me.
19 All my intimate friends[w] abhor me,
and these whom I have loved have turned against me.
20 My bones[x] cling to my skin and to my flesh,
and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
21 “Pity me, pity me, you my friends,
for God’s hand has touched me.
22 Why do you[y] pursue me like God?
And are not satisfied with my flesh?
23 O that[z] my words could be written down!
O that they could be inscribed in a scroll![aa]
24 That with a pen of iron and with lead
they might be engraved on a rock forever!
25 But[ab] I myself[ac] know that my redeemer is alive,
and at the last he will stand up upon the earth.[ad]
26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
but[ae] from[af] my flesh I will see God,
27 whom I will see for myself,[ag]
and whom my eyes will see and not a stranger.[ah]
My heart faints within me.[ai]
28 “If you[aj] say, ‘How will we persecute him?’
And ‘The root of the trouble is found’ in me,[ak]
29 be afraid for yourselves because of the sword,[al]
for wrath brings punishment by[am] the sword,
so that you may know that there is judgment.”

Footnotes

  1. Job 19:1 Hebrew “And”
  2. Job 19:2 Literally “Until when”
  3. Job 19:2 Plural
  4. Job 19:2 Hebrew “my soul,” or “my self”
  5. Job 19:3 Plural
  6. Job 19:3 Plural
  7. Job 19:3 Plural
  8. Job 19:3 Or “astonished”
  9. Job 19:5 Plural
  10. Job 19:5 Plural
  11. Job 19:7 Or “and”
  12. Job 19:7 Hebrew “and”
  13. Job 19:8 Hebrew “and”
  14. Job 19:9 Or “from”
  15. Job 19:11 Literally “he has counted me for him as his foes”
  16. Job 19:12 Or “siege works”; compare NRSV
  17. Job 19:13 Or “completely”
  18. Job 19:15 Or “of”
  19. Job 19:16 Hebrew “and”
  20. Job 19:16 Literally “with my mouth”
  21. Job 19:17 Literally “to the children of my womb”
  22. Job 19:18 Hebrew “and”
  23. Job 19:19 Literally “the men of the circle of my confidants”
  24. Job 19:20 Collective singular
  25. Job 19:22 Plural
  26. Job 19:23 Literally “Who then shall give and”
  27. Job 19:23 Literally “Who shall give in the scroll and they could be inscribed”
  28. Job 19:25 Hebrew “And”
  29. Job 19:25 Emphatic personal pronoun
  30. Job 19:25 Literally “dust”
  31. Job 19:26 Hebrew “and”
  32. Job 19:26 Or “without”
  33. Job 19:27 Literally “I myself will see for myself”; emphatic personal pronoun as subject to the singular verb
  34. Job 19:27 Or “another”
  35. Job 19:27 Literally “My kidneys fail in my lap”; see NRSV
  36. Job 19:28 Plural
  37. Job 19:28 Or “‘The root of the trouble is found’ in him”
  38. Job 19:29 Literally “from the faces of the sword”
  39. Job 19:29 Literally “of”