| NET Bible | International Standard Version |
| 1Then Job answered: | 1In response, Job said: |
| 2"How long will you torment me and crush me with your 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 been reproaching me; you are not ashamed to attack me! | 3Ten times you've tried to humiliate me! You're not ashamed to wrong me! |
| 4But even if it were true that I have erred, my error remains solely my concern! | 4Even if it's true that I've erred, my error only affects me. |
| 5If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and plead my disgrace 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 wronged me and encircled me with his net. | 6then at least you must know that God has accused me of wrong, and trapped me with his net." |
| 7"If I cry out, 'Violence!' I receive no answer; I cry 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 blocked my way so I cannot pass, and has set darkness over my paths. | 8He blocked my path, so I cannot pass; and he turned out the lights on my pathways. |
| 9He has stripped me of my honor and has taken the crown off my head. | 9"He has stripped me of my honor; he has stolen the crown off my head! |
| 10He tears me down on every side until I perish; he uproots my hope like one uproots 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. |
| 11Thus his anger burns against me, and he considers me among his enemies. | 11His anger burns against me; he regards me as his adversary. |
| 12His troops advance together; they throw up a siege ramp against me, and they camp 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 relatives far from me; my acquaintances only turn away from me. | 13"My brothers are alienated from me; my acquaintances are estranged; |
| 14My kinsmen have failed me; my friends have forgotten me. | 14my relatives have failed me; and my friends have abandoned me. |
| 15My guests and my servant girls consider me a stranger; I am 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 summon my servant, but he does not respond, even though I implore him with my own mouth. | 16"I call to my servant, but he doesn't respond, even though I beg to him earnestly. |
| 17My breath is repulsive to my wife; I am loathsome to my brothers. | 17My wife says my breath stinks; even my children say I smell bad! |
| 18Even youngsters have scorned me; when I get up, they scoff at me. | 18Even little children hate me; when I get up, they mock me. |
| 19All my closest friends detest me; and those whom I love 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 my flesh; I have escaped alive with only the skin of my teeth. | 20I'm a pile of skin and bones; I have barely escaped by the skin of my teeth." |
| 21Have pity on me, my friends, have pity on me, for the hand of God has struck me. | 21"Be gracious to me, be gracious to me, my friends, because God's hand has struck me. |
| 22Why do you pursue me like God does? Will you never be satiated with my flesh? | 22Why are you chasing me, as God has been doing? Aren't you satisfied that I'm sick? |
| 23"O that my words were written down, O that they were written on a scroll, | 23If only my words were written down; if only they were inscribed in a book |
| 24that with an iron chisel and with lead they were engraved in a rock forever! | 24using an iron stylus with lead for ink! Then they'd be engraved in rock forever. |
| 25As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that as 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 destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God, | 26Even after my skin has been destroyed, clothed in my flesh I will see God, |
| 27whom I will see for myself, and whom my own eyes will behold, and not another. My heart grows faint 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, since the root of the trouble 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?' |
| 29Fear the sword yourselves, for wrath brings the punishment by the sword, so that you may know that there is 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." |
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