| English Standard Version | Holman Christian Standard Bible |
| 1Then Job answered and said: | 1Then Job answered: |
| 2“How long will you torment me and break me in pieces with words? | 2How long will you torment me and crush me with words? |
| 3These ten times you have cast reproach upon me; are you not ashamed to wrong me? | 3You have humiliated me ten times now, and you mistreat me without shame. |
| 4And even if it be true that I have erred, my error remains with myself. | 4Even if it is true that I have sinned, my mistake concerns only me. |
| 5If indeed you magnify yourselves against me and make my disgrace an argument against me, | 5If you really want to appear superior to me and would use my disgrace as evidence against me, |
| 6know then that God has put me in the wrong and closed his net about me. | 6then understand that it is God who has wronged me and caught me in His net. |
| 7Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered; I call for help, but there is no justice. | 7I cry out: "Violence!" but get no response; I call for help, but there is no justice. |
| 8He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness upon my paths. | 8He has blocked my way so that I cannot pass through; He has veiled my paths with darkness. |
| 9He has stripped from me my glory and taken the crown from my head. | 9He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head. |
| 10He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, and my hope has he pulled up like a tree. | 10He tears me down on every side so that I am ruined. He uproots my hope like a tree. |
| 11He has kindled his wrath against me and counts me as his adversary. | 11His anger burns against me, and He regards me as one of His enemies. |
| 12His troops come on together; they have cast up their siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent. | 12His troops advance together; they construct a ramp against me and camp around my tent. |
| 13“He has put my brothers far from me, and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me. | 13He has removed my brothers from me; my acquaintances have abandoned me. |
| 14My relatives have failed me, my close friends have forgotten me. | 14My relatives stop coming by, and my close friends have forgotten me. |
| 15The guests in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their eyes. | 15My house guests and female servants regard me as a stranger; I am a foreigner in their sight. |
| 16I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy. | 16I call for my servant, but he does not answer, even if I beg him with my own mouth. |
| 17My breath is strange to my wife, and I am a stench to the children of my own mother. | 17My breath is offensive to my wife, and my own family finds me repulsive. |
| 18Even young children despise me; when I rise they talk against me. | 18Even young boys scorn me. When I stand up, they mock me. |
| 19All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me. | 19All of my best friends despise me, and those 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. | 20My skin and my flesh cling to my bones; I have 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! | 21Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy, for God's hand has struck me. |
| 22Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh? | 22Why do you persecute me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh? |
| 23“Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! | 23I wish that my words were written down, that they were recorded on a scroll |
| 24Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! | 24or were inscribed in stone forever by an iron stylus and lead! |
| 25For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. | 25But I know my living Redeemer, and He will stand on the dust at last. |
| 26And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, | 26Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet I will see God in my flesh. |
| 27whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! | 27I will see Him myself; my eyes will look at Him, and not as a stranger. My heart longs within me. |
| 28If you say, ‘How we will pursue him!’ and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’ | 28If you say, "How will we pursue him, since the root of the problem lies with him?" |
| 29be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.” | 29then be afraid of the sword, because wrath brings punishment by the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment. |
|
