1Then Job answered:
1And Job answered and said:
2“How long will you torment me
and crush me with your words?
2“Until when will you afflict my soul, and crush me with words?
3Ten times now you have reproached me;
you shamelessly mistreat me.
3These ten times you have reproached me; are you not ashamed that you have done wrong to me?
4Even if I have truly gone astray,
my error concerns me alone.
4And if I have truly gone astray, my straying lodges with me.
5If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me
and use my disgrace against me,
5If you would truly magnify yourselves over me and plead my reproach against me,
6then understand that it is God who has wronged me
and drawn His net around me.
6then know that God has wronged me and has thrown His net over me.
7Though I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I get no response;
though I call for help, there is no justice.
7Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ And I am not answered. I cry for help, and there is no justice.
8He has blocked my way so I cannot pass;
He has veiled my paths with darkness.
8My way He has walled off, and I cannot pass over; and upon my paths He has set darkness.
9He has stripped me of my honor
and removed the crown from my head.
9My honor He has stripped from me, and He has turned aside the crown from my head.
10He tears me down on every side until I am gone;
He uproots my hope like a tree.
10He tears me down round about and I depart, and He pulls out my hope like a tree.
11His anger burns against me,
and He counts me among His enemies.
11And He has kindled against me His anger, and He reckons me for Himself among His adversaries.
12His troops advance together;
they construct a ramp against me
and encamp around my tent.
12His troops come as one, and they build up their ramp against me, and they encamp all around my tent.
13He has removed my brothers from me;
my acquaintances have abandoned me.
13My brothers He has put far from me, and my acquaintances surely are estranged from me.
14My kinsmen have failed me,
and my friends have forgotten me.
14Those near to me have ceased, and those known to me have forgotten me.
15My guests and maidservants count me as a stranger;
I am a foreigner in their sight.
15Those who sojourn in my house, and my maidservants, they reckon me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their eyes.
16I call for my servant, but he does not answer,
though I implore him with my own mouth.
16I call to my servant, and he does not answer; with my mouth I seek favor from him.
17My breath is repulsive to my wife,
and I am loathsome to my own family.
17My breath is strange to my wife, and I am loathsome to the sons of my womb.
18Even little boys scorn me;
when I appear, they deride me.
18Even little boys despise me; I arise, and they speak against me.
19All my best friends despise me,
and those I love have turned against me.
19All the men of my counsel abhor me; and those I love have turned against me.
20My skin and flesh cling to my bones;
I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
20My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
21Have pity on me, my friends, have pity,
for the hand of God has struck me.
21Pity me, pity me, you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me.
22Why do you persecute me as God does?
Will you never get enough of my flesh?
22Why do you pursue me as God does? Are you not even satisfied with my flesh?
23I wish that my words were recorded
and inscribed in a book,
23Who will grant now that my words should be written? Who will grant that they be inscribed in a book,
24by an iron stylus on lead,
or chiseled in stone forever.
24with a pen of iron and with lead, they would be engraved forever in the rock!
25But I know that my Redeemera lives,
and in the end He will stand upon the earth.b
25And I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the dust.
26Even after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesha I will see God.
26And after they strike off my skin thus, yet in my flesh I will see God.
27I will see Him for myself;
my eyes will behold Him, and not as a stranger.
How my heart yearnsa within me!
27He whom I will see for myself, indeed my eyes will see, and not a stranger. My kidneys yearn in my bosom!
28If you say, ‘Let us persecute him,
since the root of the matter lies with him,’a
28If you should say, ‘How we will pursue after him,’ and ‘The root of the matter is found with him,’
29then you should fear the sword yourselves,
because wrath brings punishment by the sword,
so that you may know there is a judgment.”
29be afraid for yourselves of the face of the sword, for from wrath is the punishment of the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment.”