Job 19

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.