Job’s Sixth Speech: A Response to Bildad

19 Thena Job answered and said,

2 “⌊How long⌋b will youc torment med

and crush me with words?

3 These ten times youe have disgraced me;

youf are not ashamed that youg have attackedh me.

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

my error remains with me.

5 If indeed youi must magnify yourselves against me,

and youj must let my disgrace argue against me,

6 know then that God has wronged me

and has surrounded me with his net.

7 “Look, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ butk I am not answered;

I cry out, butl there is no justice.

8 He has walled up my way so thatm I cannot pass;

and he has set darkness upon my paths.

9 He has taken my glory from me,

and he has removed the crown ofn my head.

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

And he has uprooted my hope like a tree,

11 and he has kindled his wrath against me,

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

12 His troops have come together

and have thrown up their rampartp against me

and have encamped around my tent.

13 “He has removed my kinsfolk from me,

and my acquaintances have onlyq turned aside from me.

14 My relatives have failed,

and my close friends have forgotten me.

15 The sojourners inr my house and my slave women count me as a stranger;

I have become a foreigner in their eyes.

16 I call to my servant, buts he does not answer;

I must ⌊personally⌋t plead with him.

17 My breath is repulsive to my wife,

and I am loathsome to ⌊my own family⌋.u

18 Little boys also despise me;

when I rise, thenv they talk against me.

19 All ⌊my intimate friends⌋w abhor me,

and these whom I have loved have turned against me.

20 My bonesx 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.

22 Why do youy 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

24 That with a pen of iron and with lead

they might be engraved on a rock forever!

25 Butb I myselfc know that my redeemer is alive,

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

26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed,

bute fromf my flesh I will see God,

27 whom ⌊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 youj say, ‘How will we persecute him?’

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

29 be afraid for yourselves ⌊because of the sword⌋,l

for wrath brings punishment bym the sword,

so that you may know that there is judgment.”