Job 19–20

Job Replies: My Redeemer Lives

19Then Job answered and said:

²“How long will you torment me

and break me in pieces with words?

³These ^wten times you have cast reproach upon me;

are you not ashamed to wrong me?

⁴And even if it be true that I have erred,

my error remains with myself.

⁵If indeed you ^xmagnify yourselves against me

and make my disgrace an argument against me,

⁶know then that God has ^yput me in the wrong

and closed his net about me.

⁷Behold, I ^zcry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered;

I call for help, but there is no justice.

⁸He has ^awalled up my way, so that I cannot pass,

and he has set darkness upon my paths.

⁹He has ^bstripped from me my glory

and taken the ^ccrown from my head.

¹⁰He breaks me down on every side, and I ^dam gone,

and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.

¹¹He has kindled his wrath against me

and ^ecounts me as his adversary.

¹²His ^ftroops come on together;

they have ^gcast up their siege ramp¹ against me

and encamp around my tent.

¹³“He has put my ^hbrothers far from me,

and ⁱthose who knew me are wholly estranged from me.

¹⁴My relatives ^jhave failed me,

my close ^kfriends have forgotten me.

¹⁵The guests ^lin my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger;

I have become a foreigner in their eyes.

¹⁶I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;

I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.

¹⁷My breath is strange to my ^mwife,

and I am a stench to the children of ⁿmy own mother.

¹⁸Even young ^ochildren despise me;

when I rise they talk against me.

¹⁹All my ^pintimate friends abhor me,

and those whom I loved have turned against me.

²⁰My ^qbones stick to my skin and to my flesh,

and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

²¹Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends,

for the hand of God has ^rtouched me!

²²Why do you, like God, ^spursue me?

Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?

²³“Oh that my words were written!

Oh that they were ^tinscribed in a book!

²⁴Oh that with an iron ^upen and lead

they were engraved in the rock forever!

²⁵For I ^vknow that my ^wRedeemer lives,

and at the last he will stand upon the ^xearth.²

²⁶And after my skin has been thus destroyed,

yet in³ my flesh I shall ^ysee God,

²⁷whom I shall see for myself,

and my eyes shall behold, and not ^zanother.

My heart ^afaints within me!

²⁸If you say, ‘How we will ^spursue him!’

and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’⁴

²⁹be afraid of the sword,

for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,

that you may know there is ^ba judgment.”

Zophar Speaks: The Wicked Will Suffer

20Then ^cZophar the Naamathite answered and said:

²“Therefore my ^dthoughts answer me,

because of my haste within me.

³I hear censure that insults me,

and out of my understanding a spirit answers me.

⁴Do you not know this from of old,

^esince man was placed on earth,

^5fthat the exulting of the wicked is short,

and the joy of the godless but for a moment?

^6gThough his height mount up to the heavens,

and his head reach to the clouds,

⁷he will perish forever like his own ^hdung;

those who have seen him will say, ⁱ‘Where is he?’

⁸He will fly away like ^ja dream and not be found;

he will be chased away like a vision of the night.

^9kThe eye that saw him will see him no more,

nor will his place any more behold him.

¹⁰His children will seek the favor of the poor,

and his hands will ^lgive back his wealth.

¹¹His bones are full of his ^myouthful vigor,

but it will lie ⁿdown with him in the dust.

¹²“Though evil is sweet in his mouth,

though he hides it ^ounder his tongue,

¹³though he is loath to let it go

and holds it in his mouth,

¹⁴yet his food is turned in his stomach;

it is the venom of ^pcobras within him.

¹⁵He swallows down riches and vomits them up again;

God casts them out of his belly.

¹⁶He will suck the poison of cobras;

^qthe tongue of a viper will kill him.

¹⁷He will not look upon ^rthe rivers,

the streams flowing with ^shoney and ^tcurds.

¹⁸He will ^ugive back the fruit of his toil

and will not ^vswallow it down;

from the profit of his trading

he will get no enjoyment.

¹⁹For he has crushed and abandoned the poor;

he has seized a house that he did not build.

²⁰“Because he ^wknew no ^xcontentment in his belly,

^yhe will not let anything in which he delights escape him.

²¹There was nothing left after he had eaten;

therefore his prosperity will not endure.

²²In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress;

the hand of everyone in misery will come against him.

²³To fill his belly to the full,

God¹ will send his burning anger against him

and rain it upon him ^zinto his body.

^24aHe will flee from an iron weapon;

^ba bronze arrow will strike ^chim through.

²⁵It ^dis drawn forth and comes out of his body;

^ethe glittering point comes out of his ^fgallbladder;

^gterrors come upon him.

²⁶Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures;

^ha fire not fanned will devour him;

what is left in his tent will be consumed.

²⁷ⁱThe heavens will reveal his iniquity,

and the earth will rise up against him.

²⁸The possessions of his house will be carried away,

dragged off in the day of God’s² wrath.

^29jThis is the wicked man’s portion from God,

^jthe heritage decreed for him by God.”