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19 Then Job answered,

“How long will you torment me,
    and crush me with words?
You have reproached me ten times.
    You aren’t ashamed that you attack me.
If it is true that I have erred,
    my error remains with myself.
If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me,
    and plead against me my reproach,
know now that God has subverted me,
    and has surrounded me with his net.

“Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard.
    I cry for help, but there is no justice.
He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass,
    and has set darkness in my paths.
He has stripped me of my glory,
    and taken the crown from my head.
10 He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone.
    He has plucked my hope up like a tree.
11 He has also kindled his wrath against me.
    He counts me among his adversaries.
12 His troops come on together,
    build a siege ramp against me,
    and encamp around my tent.

13 “He has put my brothers far from me.
    My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
14 My relatives have gone away.
    My familiar friends have forgotten me.
15 Those who dwell in my house and my maids consider me a stranger.
    I am an alien in their sight.
16 I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer.
    I beg him with my mouth.
17 My breath is offensive to my wife.
    I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.
18 Even young children despise me.
    If I arise, they speak against me.
19 All my familiar friends abhor me.
    They whom I loved have turned against me.
20 My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh.
    I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

21 “Have pity on me. Have pity on me, you my friends;
    for the hand of God has touched me.
22 Why do you persecute me as God,
    and are not satisfied with my flesh?

23 “Oh that my words were now written!
    Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
24 That with an iron pen and lead
    they were engraved in the rock forever!
25 But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives.
    In the end, he will stand upon the earth.
26 After my skin is destroyed,
    then I will see God in my flesh,
27 whom I, even I, will see on my side.
    My eyes will see, and not as a stranger.

“My heart is consumed within me.
28 If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’
    because the root of the matter is found in me,
29 be afraid of the sword,
    for wrath brings the punishments of the sword,
    that you may know there is a judgment.”

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.