NET Bible | New Living Translation |
1Then Job answered: | 1Then Job spoke again: |
2"How long will you torment me and crush me with your words? | 2“How long will you torture me? How long will you try to crush me with your words? |
3These ten times you have been reproaching me; you are not ashamed to attack me! | 3You have already insulted me ten times. You should be ashamed of treating me so badly. |
4But even if it were true that I have erred, my error remains solely my concern! | 4Even if I have sinned, that is my concern, not yours. |
5If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and plead my disgrace against me, | 5You think you’re better than I am, using my humiliation as evidence of my sin. |
6know then that God has wronged me and encircled me with his net. | 6But it is God who has wronged me, capturing me in his net. |
7"If I cry out, 'Violence!' I receive no answer; I cry for help, but there is no justice. | 7“I cry out, ‘Help!’ but no one answers me. I protest, but there is no justice. |
8He has blocked my way so I cannot pass, and has set darkness over my paths. | 8God has blocked my way so I cannot move. He has plunged my path into darkness. |
9He has stripped me of my honor and has taken the crown off my head. | 9He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head. |
10He tears me down on every side until I perish; he uproots my hope like one uproots a tree. | 10He has demolished me on every side, and I am finished. He has uprooted my hope like a fallen tree. |
11Thus his anger burns against me, and he considers me among his enemies. | 11His fury burns against me; he counts me as an enemy. |
12His troops advance together; they throw up a siege ramp against me, and they camp around my tent. | 12His troops advance. They build up roads to attack me. They camp all around my tent. |
13"He has put my relatives far from me; my acquaintances only turn away from me. | 13“My relatives stay far away, and my friends have turned against me. |
14My kinsmen have failed me; my friends have forgotten me. | 14My family is gone, and my close friends have forgotten me. |
15My guests and my servant girls consider me a stranger; I am a foreigner in their eyes. | 15My servants and maids consider me a stranger. I am like a foreigner to them. |
16I summon my servant, but he does not respond, even though I implore him with my own mouth. | 16When I call my servant, he doesn’t come; I have to plead with him! |
17My breath is repulsive to my wife; I am loathsome to my brothers. | 17My breath is repulsive to my wife. I am rejected by my own family. |
18Even youngsters have scorned me; when I get up, they scoff at me. | 18Even young children despise me. When I stand to speak, they turn their backs on me. |
19All my closest friends detest me; and those whom I love have turned against me. | 19My close friends detest me. Those I loved 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 have been reduced to skin and bones and have escaped death 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“Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy, for the hand of God has struck me. |
22Why do you pursue me like God does? Will you never be satiated with my flesh? | 22Must you also persecute me, like God does? Haven’t you chewed me up enough? |
23"O that my words were written down, O that they were written on a scroll, | 23“Oh, that my words could be recorded. Oh, that they could be inscribed on a monument, |
24that with an iron chisel and with lead they were engraved in a rock forever! | 24carved with an iron chisel and filled with lead, engraved forever in the rock. |
25As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that as the last he will stand upon the earth. | 25“But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last. |
26And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God, | 26And after my body has decayed, yet in my body 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. | 27I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought! |
28If you say, 'How we will pursue him, since the root of the trouble is found in him!' | 28“How dare you go on persecuting me, saying, ‘It’s his own fault’? |
29Fear the sword yourselves, for wrath brings the punishment by the sword, so that you may know that there is judgment." | 29You should fear punishment yourselves, for your attitude deserves punishment. Then you will know that there is indeed a judgment.” |
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