Job 19

Job’s Reply to Bildad

¹Then Job answered:

²How long will you torment me

and crush me with words?

³You have humiliated me ten times now,

and you mistreat ^a me without shame. ^b

⁴Even if it is true that I have sinned,

my mistake concerns only ^c me.

⁵If you really want to appear superior ^d to me

and would use my disgrace as evidence against me,

⁶then understand that it is God who has wronged me

and caught me in his net. ^e

⁷I cry out, “Violence! ” but get no response; ^f

I call for help, but there is no justice.

⁸He has blocked ^g my way so that I cannot pass through;

he has veiled my paths with darkness. ^h

⁹He has stripped me of my honor

and removed the crown from my head.

¹⁰He tears me down on every side so that I am ruined. ⁱ

He uproots my hope like a tree. ^j

¹¹His anger ^k burns against me,

and he regards me as one of his enemies. ^l

¹²His troops advance together;

they construct a ramp ^m against me

and camp ⁿ around my tent.

¹³He has removed my brothers from me;

my acquaintances have abandoned me. ^o

¹⁴My relatives stop coming by,

and my close friends have forgotten me.

¹⁵My house guests ^p and female servants regard me as a stranger;

I am a foreigner in their sight. ^q

¹⁶I call for my servant, but he does not answer,

even if I beg him with my own mouth.

¹⁷My breath is offensive to my wife,

and my own family ^r finds me repulsive.

¹⁸Even young boys scorn me.

When I stand up, they mock me. ^s

¹⁹All of my best friends ^t despise me, ^u

and those I love have turned against me. ^v

²⁰My skin and my flesh cling to my bones;

I have escaped with only the skin of my teeth.

²¹Have mercy on me, my friends, ^w have mercy,

for God’s hand ^x has struck me. ^y

²²Why do you persecute me as God does?

Will you never get enough of my flesh?

²³I wish that my words were written down,

that they were recorded on a scroll

²⁴or were inscribed in stone forever

by an iron stylus and lead!

²⁵But I know that my Redeemer lives, ^z,^aa

and at the end he will stand on the dust. ^ab

²⁶Even after my skin has been destroyed, ^ac

yet I will see God in ^ad my flesh. ^ae

²⁷I will see him myself;

my eyes will look at him, and not as a stranger. ^af

My heart longs ^ag within me. ^ah

²⁸If you say, “How will we pursue him,

since the root of the problem lies with him? ” ^ai

²⁹then be afraid of the sword,

because wrath brings punishment by the sword, ^aj

so that you may know there is a judgment.