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Job's Reply to Bildad

How Long Will You Torture Me?

19 Job said:
How long will you torture me
    with your words?
Isn't ten times enough
for you to accuse me?
    Aren't you ashamed?
Even if I have sinned,
    you haven't been harmed.
You boast of your goodness,
claiming I am suffering
    because I am guilty.
But God is the one at fault
    for finding fault with me.

Though I pray to be rescued
    from this torment,
no whisper of justice
    answers me.
God has me trapped
with a wall of darkness
    and stripped of respect.
10 God rips me apart,
    uproots my hopes,
11 and attacks with fierce anger,
    as though I were his enemy.
12 His entire army advances,
    then surrounds my tent.

I Am Forgotten

* 13 God has turned relatives
and friends against me,
14     and I am forgotten.
15 My guests and my servants
    consider me a stranger,
16 and when I call my servants,
    they pay no attention.
17 My breath disgusts my wife;
everyone in my family
    turns away.
18 Young children can't stand me,
and when I come near,
    they make fun.
19 (A) My best friends and loved ones
    have turned from me.
20 I am skin and bones—
    just barely alive.
21 My friends, I beg you for pity!
    God has made me his target.
22 Hasn't he already done enough?
    Why do you join the attack?

23 I wish that my words
could be written down
24     or chiseled into rock.
25 I know that my Protector[a] lives,
and at the end
    he will stand on this earth.
26 My flesh may be destroyed,
yet from this body
    I will see God.[b]
27 Yes, I will see him for myself,
    and I long for that moment.

28 My friends, you think up ways
to blame and torment me, saying
    I brought it on myself.
29 But watch out for the judgment,
    when God will punish you!

Footnotes

  1. 19.25 Protector: Or “Defender” or “Savior.”
  2. 19.26 God: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verses 25,26.

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