Job 19

Job’s Sixth Speech: A Response to Bildad

1  Then*Hebrew "And" Job answered and said,

2 "How long*Literally "Until when" will you*Plural torment me*Hebrew "my soul," or "my self"

and crush me with words?

3 These ten times you*Plural have disgraced me;

you*Plural are not ashamed that you*Plural have attacked*Or "astonished" me.

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

my error remains with me.

5 If indeed you*Plural must magnify yourselves against me,

and you*Plural 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!’ but*Or "and" I am not answered;

I cry out, but*Hebrew "and" there is no justice.

8 He has walled up my way so that*Hebrew "and" 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 of*Or "from" 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.*Literally "he has counted me for him as his foes"

12 His troops have come together

and have thrown up their rampart*Or "siege works"; compare NRSV against me

and have encamped around my tent.

13 "He has removed my kinsfolk from me,

and my acquaintances have only*Or "completely" turned aside from me.

14 My relatives have failed,

and my close friends have forgotten me.

15 The sojourners in*Or "of" 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, but*Hebrew "and" he does not answer;

I must personally*Literally "with my mouth" plead with him.

17 My breath is repulsive to my wife,

and I am loathsome to my own family.*Literally "to the children of my womb"

18 Little boys also despise me;

when I rise, then*Hebrew "and" they talk against me.

19 All my intimate friends*Literally "the men of the circle of my confidants" abhor me,

and these whom I have loved have turned against me.

20 My bones*Collective singular 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 you*Plural pursue me like God?

And are not satisfied with my flesh?

23 "O that*Literally "Who then shall give and" my words could be written down!

O that they could be inscribed in a scroll!*Literally "Who shall give in the scroll and they could be inscribed"

24 That with a pen of iron and with lead

they might be engraved on a rock forever!

25 But*Hebrew "And" I myself*Emphatic personal pronoun know that my redeemer is alive,

and at the last he will stand up upon the earth.*Literally "dust"

26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed,

but*Hebrew "and" from*Or "without" my flesh I will see God,

27 whom I will see for myself,*Literally "I myself will see for myself"; emphatic personal pronoun as subject to the singular verb

and whom my eyes will see and not a stranger.*Or "another"

My heart faints within me.*Literally "My kidneys fail in my lap"; see NRSV

28 "If you*Plural say, ‘How will we persecute him?’

And ‘The root of the trouble is found’ in me,*Or " ‘The root of the trouble is found’ in him"

29 be afraid for yourselves because of the sword,*Literally "from the faces of the sword"

for wrath brings punishment by*Literally "of" the sword,

so that you may know that there is judgment."