Job 19:1–21:34

JOB’S REPLY TO BILDAD

19 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 mistreatA me without shame.l

4 Even if it is true that I have sinned,

my mistake concerns onlyB me.

5 If you really want to appear superiorm 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.n

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

I call for help, but there is no justice.

8 He has blockedp my way so that I cannot pass through;

he has veiled my paths with darkness.q

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.C

He uproots my hope like a tree.r

11 His angers burns against me,

and he regards me as one of his enemies.t

12 His troops advance together;

they construct a rampD against me

and campu around my tent.

13 He has removed my brothers from me;

my acquaintances have abandoned me.v

14 My relatives stop coming by,

and my close friends have forgotten me.

15 My house guestsE and female servants regard me as a stranger;

I am a foreigner in their sight.w

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 familyF finds me repulsive.

18 Even young boys scorn me.

When I stand up, they mock me.x

19 All of my best friendsG despise me,y

and those I love have turned against me.z

20 My skin and my flesh cling to my bones;

I have escaped with only the skin of my teeth.

21 Have mercy on me, my friends,a have mercy,

for God’s handb has struck me.c

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 that my Redeemer lives,A,d

and at the end he will stand on the dust.e

26 Even after my skin has been destroyed,B

yet I will see God inC my flesh.f

27 I will see him myself;

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

My heart longsE within me.g

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

since the root of the problem lies with him?”F

29 then be afraid of the sword,

because wrath brings punishment by the sword,h

so that you may know there is a judgment.

ZOPHAR SPEAKS

20 Then Zophar the Naamathitei replied:

2 This is why my unsettling thoughts compel me to answer,

because I am upset!G

3 I have heard a rebuke that insults me,

and my understandingH makes me reply.j

4 Don’t you know that ever since antiquity,

from the time a human was placed on earth,

5 the joy of the wicked has been brief

and the happiness of the godless has lasted only a moment?k

6 Though his arrogance reaches heaven,

and his head touches the clouds,l

7 he will vanish forever like his own dung.

Those who knowI him will ask, “Where is he?”m

8 He will fly away like a dream and never be found;

he will be chased away like a vision in the night.n

9 The eye that saw him will see him no more,o

and his household will no longer see him.p

10 His children will beg fromJ the poor,

for his own hands must give back his wealth.

11 His frame may be full of youthful vigor,

but it will lie down with him in dust.q

12 Though evil tastes sweet in his mouth

and he conceals it under his tongue,

13 though he cherishes it and will not let it go

but keeps it in his mouth,r

14 yet the food in his stomach turns

into cobras’ venom inside him.

15 He swallows wealth but must vomit it up;

God will force it from his stomach.

16 He will suck the poison of cobras;

a viper’s fangsA will kill him.s

17 He will not enjoy the streams,

the rivers flowing with honey and curds.t

18 He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it;

he doesn’t enjoy the profits from his trading.

19 For he oppressed and abandoned the poor;

he seized a house he did not build.u

20 Because his appetite is never satisfied,B

he does not let anything he desires escape.

21 Nothing is left for him to consume;v

therefore, his prosperity will not last.

22 At the height of his successC distress will come to him;a

the full weight of miseryD will crush him.

23 When he fills his stomach,

God will send his burning anger against him,

rainingb it down on him while he is eating.E

24 If he flees from an iron weapon,

an arrow from a bronze bow will pierce him.

25 He pulls it out of his back,

the flashing tip out of his liver.F

Terrors come over him.c

26 Total darkness is reserved for his treasures.

A fire unfanned by human hands will consumed him;

it will feed on what is left in his tent.

27 The heavens will expose his iniquity,e

and the earth will rise up against him.f

28 The possessions in his house will be removed,

flowing away on the day of God’s anger.

29 This is the wicked person’s lotg from God,

the inheritance God ordained for him.

JOB’S REPLY TO ZOPHAR

21 Then Job answered:

2 Pay close attention to my words;

let this be the consolation you offer.

3 Bear with me while I speak;

then after I have spoken, you may continue mocking.

4 As for me, is my complainth against a human being?

Then why shouldn’t I be impatient?

5 Look at me and shudder;i

put your hand over your mouth.j

6 When I think about it, I am terrified

and my body tremblesk in horror.

7 Why do the wicked continue to live,

growing old and becoming powerful?

8 Their children are established while they are still alive,A

and their descendants, before their eyes.

9 Their homes are secure and free of fear;l

no rod from God strikes them.m

10 Their bulls breed without fail;

their cows calve and do not miscarry.

11 They let their little ones run around like lambs;

their children skip about,

12 singing to the tambourine and lyre

and rejoicing at the sound of the flute.n

13 They spendB their days in prosperityo

and go down to Sheol in peace.

14 Yet they say to God, “Leave us alone!

We don’t want to know your ways.p

15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him,

and what will we gain by pleading with him?”q

16 But their prosperity is not of their own doing.

The counsel of the wicked is far from me!r

17 How often is the lamps of the wicked put out?

Does disasterC come on them?

Does he apportion destruction in his anger?

18 Are they like straw before the wind,

like chafft a storm sweeps away?

19 God reserves a person’s punishment for his children.u

Let God repay the person himself, so that he may know it.

20 Let his own eyes see his demise;

let him drink from the Almighty’s wrath!v

21 For what does he care about his family once he is dead,w

when the number of his months has run out?x

22 Can anyone teach God knowledge,y

since he judges the exalted ones?D

23 One person dies in excellent health,E

completely secureF and at ease.

24 His body isA well fed,B

and his bones are full of marrow.C

25 Yet another person dies with a bittera soul,

having never tasted prosperity.

26 But they both lie in the dust,

and worms cover them.b

27 I know your thoughts very well,

the schemes by which you would wrong me.

28 For you say, “Where now is the nobleman’s house?”

and “Where are the tentsc the wicked lived in?”

29 Have you never consulted those who travel the roads?

Don’t you accept their reports?D

30 Indeed, the evil person is spared from the day of disaster,

rescued from the day of wrath.

31 Who would denounce his behavior to his face?

Who would repayd him for what he has done?

32 He is carried to the grave,

and someone keeps watch over his tomb.

33 The dirt on his grave isE sweet to him.

Everyone follows behind him,

and those who go before him are without number.

34 So how can you offer me such futile comfort?

Your answers are deceptive.