Job 19

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.”