Christian Standard Bible

English Standard Version

1Then Job answered:

1Then Job answered and said:

2How long will you torment me and crush me with words?

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

3You have humiliated me ten times now, and you mistreat me without shame.

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

4Even if it is true that I have sinned, my mistake concerns only me.

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

5If you really want to appear superior to me and would use my disgrace as evidence against me,

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

6then understand that it is God who has wronged me and caught me in his net.

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

7I cry out: "Violence!" but get no response; I call for help, but there is no justice.

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

8He has blocked my way so that I cannot pass through; he has veiled my paths with darkness.

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

9He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head.

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

10He tears me down on every side so that I am ruined. He uproots my hope like a tree.

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

11His anger burns against me, and he regards me as one of his enemies.

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

12His troops advance together; they construct a ramp against me and camp around my tent.

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

13He has removed my brothers from me; my acquaintances have abandoned me.

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

14My relatives stop coming by, and my close friends have forgotten me.

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

15My house guests and female servants regard me as a stranger; I am a foreigner in their sight.

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

16I call for my servant, but he does not answer, even if I beg him with my own mouth.

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

17My breath is offensive to my wife, and my own family finds me repulsive.

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

18Even young boys scorn me. When I stand up, they mock me.

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

19All of my best friends despise me, and those I love have turned against me.

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

20My skin and my flesh cling to my bones; I have escaped with only the skin of my teeth.

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

21Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy, for God's hand has struck me.

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

22Why do you persecute me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh?

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

23I wish that my words were written down, that they were recorded on a scroll

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

24or were inscribed in stone forever by an iron stylus and lead!

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

25But I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the end he will stand on the dust.

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

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

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

27I will see him myself; my eyes will look at him, and not as a stranger. My heart longs within me.

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

28If you say, "How will we pursue him, since the root of the problem lies with him?"

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

29then be afraid of the sword, because wrath brings punishment by the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment.

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

The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission.

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.