Job 19–20

Job Answers Bildad

19Then Job answered:

²“How long will you hurt me

and crush me with your words?

³You have insulted me ten times now

and attacked me without shame.

⁴Even if I have sinned,

it is my worry alone.

⁵If you want to make yourselves look better than I,

you can blame me for my suffering.

⁶Then know that God has wronged me

and pulled his net around me.

⁷“I shout, ‘I have been wronged!’

But I get no answer.

I scream for help

but I get no justice.

⁸God has blocked my way so I cannot pass;

he has covered my paths with darkness.

⁹He has taken away my honor

and removed the crown from my head.

¹⁰He beats me down on every side until I am gone;

he destroys my hope like a fallen tree.

¹¹His anger burns against me,

and he treats me like an enemy.

¹²His armies gather;

they prepare to attack me.

They camp around my tent.

¹³“God has made my brothers my enemies,

and my friends have become strangers.

¹⁴My relatives have gone away,

and my friends have forgotten me.

¹⁵My guests and my female servants treat me like a stranger;

they look at me as if I were a foreigner.

¹⁶I call for my servant, but he does not answer,

even when I beg him with my own mouth.

¹⁷My wife can’t stand my breath,

and my own family dislikes me.

¹⁸Even the little boys hate me

and talk about me when I leave.

¹⁹All my close friends hate me;

even those I love have turned against me.

²⁰I am nothing but skin and bones;

I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

²¹Pity me, my friends, pity me,

because the hand of God has hit me.

²²Why do you chase me as God does?

Haven’t you hurt me enough?

²³“How I wish my words were written down,

written on a scroll.

²⁴I wish they were carved with an iron pen into lead,

or carved into stone forever.

²⁵I know that my Defender lives,

and in the end he will stand upon the earth.

²⁶Even after my skin has been destroyed,

in my flesh I will see God.

²⁷I will see him myself;

I will see him with my very own eyes.

How my heart wants that to happen!

²⁸“If you say, ‘We will continue to trouble Job,

because the problem lies with him,’

²⁹you should be afraid of the sword yourselves.

God’s anger will bring punishment by the sword.

Then you will know there is judgment.”

Zophar Answers

20Then Zophar the Naamathite answered:

²“My troubled thoughts cause me to answer,

because I am very upset.

³You correct me and I am insulted,

but I understand how to answer you.

⁴“You know how it has been for a long time,

ever since people were first put on the earth.

⁵The happiness of evil people is brief,

and the joy of the wicked lasts only a moment.

⁶Their pride may be as high as the heavens,

and their heads may touch the clouds,

⁷but they will be gone forever, like their own dung.

People who knew them will say, ‘Where are they?’

⁸They will fly away like a dream

and not be found again;

they will be chased away like a vision in the night.

⁹Those who saw them will not see them again;

the places where they lived will see them no more.

¹⁰Their children will have to pay back the poor,

and they will have to give up their wealth.

¹¹They had the strength of their youth in their bones,

but it will lie with them in the dust of death.

¹²“Evil may taste sweet in their mouths,

and they may hide it under their tongues.

¹³They cannot stand to let go of it;

they keep it in their mouths.

¹⁴But their food will turn sour in their stomachs,

like the poison of a snake inside them.

¹⁵They have swallowed riches, but they will spit them out;

God will make them vomit their riches up.

¹⁶They will suck the poison of snakes,

and the snake’s fangs will kill them.

¹⁷They will not admire the sparkling streams

or the rivers flowing with honey and cream.

¹⁸They must give back what they worked for without eating it;

they will not enjoy the money they made from their trading,

¹⁹because they troubled the poor and left them with nothing.

They have taken houses they did not build.

²⁰“Evil people never lack an appetite,

and nothing escapes their selfishness.

²¹But nothing will be left for them to eat;

their riches will not continue.

²²When they still have plenty, trouble will catch up to them,

and great misery will come down on them.

²³When the wicked fill their stomachs,

God will send his burning anger against them,

and blows of punishment will fall on them like rain.

²⁴The wicked may run away from an iron weapon,

but a bronze arrow will stab them.

²⁵They will pull the arrows out of their backs

and pull the points out of their livers.

Terrors will come over them;

²⁶total darkness waits for their treasure.

A fire not fanned by people will destroy them

and burn up what is left of their tents.

²⁷The heavens will show their guilt,

and the earth will rise up against them.

²⁸A flood will carry their houses away,

swept away on the day of God’s anger.

²⁹This is what God plans for evil people;

this is what he has decided they will receive.”