Job 19–20

Job’s Sixth Speech: A Response to Bildad

19Then^a Job answered and said,

²“How long^b will you^c torment me^d

and crush me with words?

³These ten times you^e have disgraced me;

you^f are not ashamed that you^g have attacked^h me.

⁴And what is more, if I have truly erred,

my error remains with me.

⁵If indeed youⁱ must magnify yourselves against me,

and you^j must let my disgrace argue against me,

⁶know then that God has wronged me

and has surrounded me with his net.

⁷“Look, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but^k I am not answered;

I cry out, but^l there is no justice.

⁸He has walled up my way so that^m I cannot pass;

and he has set darkness upon my paths.

⁹He has taken my glory from me,

and he has removed the crown ofⁿ my head.

¹⁰He has broken me down all around, and I am gone.

And he has uprooted my hope like a tree,

¹¹and he has kindled his wrath against me,

and he has counted me as one of his foes.^o

¹²His troops have come together

and have thrown up their rampart^p against me

and have encamped around my tent.

¹³“He has removed my kinsfolk from me,

and my acquaintances have only^q turned aside from me.

¹⁴My relatives have failed,

and my close friends have forgotten me.

¹⁵The sojourners in^r my house and my slave women count me as a stranger;

I have become a foreigner in their eyes.

¹⁶I call to my servant, but^s he does not answer;

I must personally^t plead with him.

¹⁷My breath is repulsive to my wife,

and I am loathsome to my own family.^u

¹⁸Little boys also despise me;

when I rise, then^v they talk against me.

¹⁹All my intimate friends^w abhor me,

and these whom I have loved have turned against me.

²⁰My bones^x cling to my skin and to my flesh,

and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

²¹“Pity me, pity me, you my friends,

for God’s hand has touched me.

²²Why do you^y pursue me like God?

And are not satisfied with my flesh?

²³“O that^z my words could be written down!

O that they could be inscribed in a scroll!^a

²⁴That with a pen of iron and with lead

they might be engraved on a rock forever!

²⁵But^b I myself^c know that my redeemer is alive,

and at the last he will stand up upon the earth.^d

²⁶And after my skin has been thus destroyed,

but^e from^f my flesh I will see God,

²⁷whom I will see for myself,^g

and whom my eyes will see and not a stranger.^h

My heart faints within me.ⁱ

²⁸“If you^j say, ‘How will we persecute him?’

And ‘The root of the trouble is found’ in me,^k

²⁹be afraid for yourselves because of the sword,^l

for wrath brings punishment by^m the sword,

so that you may know that there is judgment.”

Zophar’s Second Speech

20Then^a Zophar the Naamathite answered and said,

²“Therefore my disquieting thoughts bring me back

for the sake of^b my inward excitement.^c

³I hear discipline that insults me,

and a spirit beyond my understanding answers me.

⁴“Did you^d know this from of old,

since the setting of the human being on earth,

⁵that the rejoicing of the wicked is short,^e

and the joy of the godless lasts only a moment?^f

⁶Even though his stature mounts up to the heaven,

and his head reaches to the clouds,

⁷he will perish forever like his dung;

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

⁸He will fly away like a dream, and they will not find him,

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

⁹The eye that saw him will not see him again,^g

and his place will no longer behold him.

¹⁰His children will seek favors from the poor,

and his hands will return his wealth.

¹¹His bones were full of his vigor,

but^h it will lie down with him onⁱ the dust.

¹²“Though wickedness tastes sweet in his mouth,

and he hides it under his tongue,

¹³though he spares it and does not let it go

and holds it back in the midst of his palate,

¹⁴in his bowels his food is turned,

the venom of horned vipers is within him.^j

¹⁵He swallows riches, but^k he vomits them^l up;

God drives them^m out from his stomach.

¹⁶He will suck the poison of horned vipers;

the viper’s tongue will kill him.

¹⁷He will not enjoy the streams,ⁿ

the torrents of honey and curds.

¹⁸Returning the products of his toil, he will not swallow;^o

according to the profit of his trade, he will not enjoy,^p

¹⁹for he has oppressed; he has abandoned the poor;

he has seized a house but^q did not build it.

²⁰Because he has not known satisfaction in his stomach,

he lets nothing escape that he desires.^r

²¹There is nothing left after he has eaten;^s

therefore his prosperity will not endure.

²²In the fullness of his excess he will be in distress;^t

all of misery’s power will come upon him.

²³When his stomach fills up,^u God will send his burning anger^v upon him,

and he will let it rain down upon him^w as his food.

²⁴“He will flee from an iron weapon,

but an arrow of bronze will pierce him.

²⁵He draws it forth, and it comes out from his body,

and the glittering point comes from his gall-bladder;

terrors come upon him.

²⁶Total darkness^x is hidden for his treasures;^y

an unfanned fire^z will devour him;

the remnant^a will be consumed^b in his tent.

²⁷The heavens will reveal his guilt,

and the earth will rise up against him.

²⁸The products of his house will be carried away^c

like gushing waters^d on the day of his wrath.

²⁹This is a wicked human being’s portion from God

and the inheritance of his decree from God.”^e