NET Bible

Job’s Reply to Bildad1

^19:1 Then Job answered:

^19:2 “How long will you torment me and crush me with your words? ^19:3 These ten times you have been reproaching me; you are not ashamed to attack me. ^19:4 But even if it were true that I have erred, my error remains solely my concern! ^19:5 If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and plead my disgrace against me, ^19:6 know then that God has wronged me and encircled me with his net.

Job’s Abandonment and Affliction

^19:7 “If I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I receive no answer; I cry for help, but there is no justice. ^19:8 He has blocked my way so I cannot pass and has set darkness over my paths. ^19:9 He has stripped me of my honor and has taken the crown off my head. ^19:10 He tears me down on every side until I perish; he uproots my hope like an uprooted tree. ^19:11 Thus his anger burns against me, and he considers me among his enemies. ^19:12 His troops advance together; they throw up a siege ramp against me, and they camp around my tent.

Job’s Forsaken State

^19:13 “He has put my relatives far from me; my acquaintances only turn away from me. ^19:14 My kinsmen have failed me; my friends have forgotten me. ^19:15 My guests and my servant girls consider me a stranger; I am a foreigner in their eyes. ^19:16 I summon my servant, but he does not respond, even though I implore him with my own mouth. ^19:17 My breath is repulsive to my wife; I am loathsome to my brothers. ^19:18 Even youngsters have scorned me; when I get up, they scoff at me. ^19:19 All my closest friends detest me; and those whom I love have turned against me. ^19:20 My bones stick to my skin and my flesh; I have escaped alive with only the skin of my teeth. ^19:21 Have pity on me, my friends, have pity on me, for the hand of God has struck me. ^19:22 Why do you pursue me like God does? Will you never be satiated with my flesh?

Job’s Assurance of Vindication

^19:23 “O that my words were written down! O that they were written on a scroll! ^19:24 O that with an iron chisel and with lead they were engraved in a rock forever! ^19:25 As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that as the last he will stand upon the earth. ^19:26 And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God, ^19:27 whom I will see for myself, and whom my own eyes will behold, and not another. My heart grows faint within me. ^19:28 If you say, ‘How we will pursue him, since the root of the trouble is found in him!’ ^19:29 Fear the sword yourselves, for wrath brings the punishment by the sword, so that you may know that there is judgment.”