English Standard Version

International Standard Version

1Then Job answered and said:

1In response, Job said:

2“How long will you torment me and break me in pieces with words?

2"How long do you intend to keep torturing me and trying to break me by what you're saying?

3These ten times you have cast reproach upon me; are you not ashamed to wrong me?

3Ten times you've tried to humiliate me! You're not ashamed to wrong me!

4And even if it be true that I have erred, my error remains with myself.

4Even if it's true that I've erred, my error only affects me.

5If indeed you magnify yourselves against me and make my disgrace an argument against me,

5If you really intend to vaunt yourselves over me, and make my problems the basis of your case against me,

6know then that God has put me in the wrong and closed his net about me.

6then at least you must know that God has accused me of wrong, and trapped me with his net."

7Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered; I call for help, but there is no justice.

7"Although I cried out 'Violence!' I received no answer; I cried for help, but there was no justice.

8He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness upon my paths.

8He blocked my path, so I cannot pass; and he turned out the lights on my pathways.

9He has stripped from me my glory and taken the crown from my head.

9"He has stripped me of my honor; he has stolen the crown off my head!

10He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.

10He is breaking me down on every side, and now it's too late for me; he has uprooted my hopes like a tree.

11He has kindled his wrath against me and counts me as his adversary.

11His anger burns against me; he regards me as his adversary.

12His troops come on together; they have cast up their siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent.

12His troops march in a column against me, erecting their siege ramps against me; they surround my tent."

13“He has put my brothers far from me, and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me.

13"My brothers are alienated from me; my acquaintances are estranged;

14My relatives have failed me, my close friends have forgotten me.

14my relatives have failed me; and my friends have abandoned me.

15The guests in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their eyes.

15Those who live in my house— and my maidservants, too!— treat me like a stranger; they think I'm a foreigner.

16I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.

16"I call to my servant, but he doesn't respond, even though I beg to him earnestly.

17My breath is strange to my wife, and I am a stench to the children of my own mother.

17My wife says my breath stinks; even my children say I smell bad!

18Even young children despise me; when I rise they talk against me.

18Even little children hate me; when I get up, they mock me.

19All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me.

19My closest friends detest me; even the ones I love have turned against me.

20My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

20I'm a pile of skin and bones; I have barely escaped by the skin of my teeth."

21Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!

21"Be gracious to me, be gracious to me, my friends, because God's hand has struck me.

22Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?

22Why are you chasing me, as God has been doing? Aren't you satisfied that I'm sick?

23“Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

23If only my words were written down; if only they were inscribed in a book

24Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!

24using an iron stylus with lead for ink! Then they'd be engraved in rock forever.

25For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.

25"As for me, I know that my Vindicator is alive; And he, the Last One, will take his stand on the soil.

26And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God,

26Even after my skin has been destroyed, clothed in my flesh I will see God,

27whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!

27whom I will see for myself. My own eyes will look at him— there won't be anyone else for me!— He is the culmination of my innermost desire."

28If you say, ‘How we will pursue him!’ and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’

28"When you're thinking about asking yourselves, 'How will we pursue him, since the root of the problem is with him?'

29be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.”

29Make sure that you remain wary of God's sword, for God's wrath brings with it the sword of punishment, by which you'll know there's a judgment."

ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.

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