Job 19 | HCSB | STEP | Then Job answered :

‏ Job 19

Job’s Reply to Bildad

1 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 ^{▼▼Hb obscure} me without shame. ^b
4 Even if it is true that I have sinned,
my mistake concerns only ^{▼▼Lit mistake lives with} me.
5 If you really want to appear superior ^d 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. ^e

7 I cry out: “Violence!” but get no response; ^f
I call for help, but there is no justice.
8 He has blocked ^g my way so that I cannot pass through;
He has veiled my paths with darkness. ^h
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. ^{▼▼Lit gone}
He uproots my hope like a tree. ^j
11 His anger ^k burns against me,
and He regards me as one of His enemies. ^l
12 His troops advance together;
they construct a ramp ^{▼▼Lit they raise up their way} against me
and camp ⁿ around my tent.

13 He has removed my brothers from me;
my acquaintances have abandoned me. ^o
14 My relatives stop coming by,
and my close friends have forgotten me.
15 My house guests ^{▼▼Or The resident aliens in my household} and female servants regard me as a stranger;
I am a foreigner in their sight. ^q
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 ^{▼▼Lit and the sons of my belly} finds me repulsive.
18 Even young boys scorn me.
When I stand up, they mock me. ^s
19 All of my best friends ^{▼▼Lit of the men of my council} despise me, ^u
and those I love have turned against me. ^v
20 My skin and my flesh cling to my bones;
I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

21 Have mercy on me, my friends, ^w have mercy,
for God’s hand ^x has struck me. ^y
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 my living Redeemer, ^{▼▼Or know that my Redeemer is living
,} ^aa
and He will stand on the dust ^{▼▼Or earth} at last. ^{▼▼Or dust at the last, or dust as the Last One
,} ^ad
26 Even after my skin has been destroyed, ^{▼▼Lit skin which they destroyed, or skin they destroyed in this way}
yet I will see God in ^{▼▼Or apart from} my flesh. ^ag
27 I will see Him myself;
my eyes will look at Him, and not as a stranger. ^{▼▼Or not a stranger}
My heart longs ^{▼▼Lit My kidneys grow faint} within me. ^aj

28 If you say, “How will we pursue him,
since the root of the problem lies with him?” ^{▼▼Some Hb mss, LXX, Vg; other Hb mss read me}
29 then be afraid of the sword,
because wrath brings punishment by the sword, ^al
so that you may know there is a judgment.