Job 19–20

Job’s Reply to Bildad

19Then Job answered:

²How long will you torment me

and crush me with words?

³You have humiliated me ten times now,

and you mistreat ^vme without shame. ^w

⁴Even if it is true that I have sinned,

my mistake concerns only ^xme.

⁵If you really want to appear superior ^yto 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. ^z

⁷I cry out: “Violence!” but get no response; ^a

I call for help, but there is no justice.

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

He has veiled my paths with darkness. ^c

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. ^d

He uproots my hope like a tree. ^e

¹¹His anger ^fburns against me,

and He regards me as one of His enemies. ^g

¹²His troops advance together;

they construct a ramp ^hagainst me

and camp ⁱaround my tent.

¹³He has removed my brothers from me;

my acquaintances have abandoned me. ^j

¹⁴My relatives stop coming by,

and my close friends have forgotten me.

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

I am a foreigner in their sight. ^l

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 ^mfinds me repulsive.

¹⁸Even young boys scorn me.

When I stand up, they mock me. ⁿ

¹⁹All of my best friends ^odespise me, ^p

and those I love have turned against me. ^q

²⁰My skin and my flesh cling to my bones;

I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

²¹Have mercy on me, my friends, ^rhave mercy,

for God’s hand ^shas struck me. ^t

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 my living Redeemer, ^uv

and He will stand on the dust ^wat last. ^xy

²⁶Even after my skin has been destroyed, ^z

yet I will see God in ^amy flesh. ^b

²⁷I will see Him myself;

my eyes will look at Him, and not as a stranger. ^c

My heart longs ^dwithin me. ^e

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

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

²⁹then be afraid of the sword,

because wrath brings punishment by the sword, ^g

so that you may know there is a judgment.

Zophar Speaks

20Then Zophar the Naamathite ^hreplied:

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

because I am upset! ⁱ

³I have heard a rebuke that insults me,

and my understanding ^jmakes me reply. ^k

⁴Don’t you know that ever since antiquity,

from the time man was placed on earth,

⁵the joy of the wicked has been brief

and the happiness of the godless has lasted only a moment? ^l

⁶Though his arrogance reaches heaven,

and his head touches the clouds, ^m

⁷he will vanish forever like his own dung.

Those who know ⁿhim will ask, “Where is he?” ^o

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

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

⁹The eye that saw him will see him no more, ^q

and his household will no longer see him. ^r

¹⁰His children will beg from ^sthe poor,

for his own hands must give back his wealth.

¹¹His bones may be full of youthful vigor,

but will lie down with him in the grave. ^t

¹²Though evil tastes sweet in his mouth

and he conceals it under his tongue,

¹³though he cherishes it and will not let it go

but keeps it in his mouth, ^u

¹⁴yet the food in his stomach turns

into cobras’ venom inside him.

¹⁵He swallows wealth but must vomit it up;

God will force it from his stomach.

¹⁶He will suck the poison of cobras;

a viper’s fangs ^vwill kill him. ^w

¹⁷He will not enjoy the streams,

the rivers flowing with honey and cream. ^x

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

he doesn’t enjoy the profits from his trading.

¹⁹For he oppressed and abandoned the poor;

he seized a house he did not build. ^y

²⁰Because his appetite is never satisfied, ^z

he does not let anything he desires escape.

²¹Nothing is left for him to consume; ^a

therefore, his prosperity will not last.

²²At the height of his success ^bdistress will come to him; ^c

the full weight of misery ^dwill crush him.

²³When he fills his stomach,

God will send His burning anger against him,

raining ^eit down on him while he is eating. ^f

²⁴If he flees from an iron weapon,

an arrow from a bronze bow will pierce him.

²⁵He pulls it out of his back,

the flashing tip out of his liver. ^g

Terrors come over him. ^h

²⁶Total darkness is reserved for his treasures.

A fire unfanned by human hands will consume ⁱhim;

it will feed on what is left in his tent.

²⁷The heavens will expose his iniquity, ^j

and the earth will rise up against him. ^k

²⁸The possessions in his house will be removed,

flowing away on the day of God’s anger.

²⁹This is the wicked man’s lot ^lfrom God,

the inheritance God ordained for him.