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Another lament

17 My spirit is broken,
    my days extinguished,
    the grave,[a] mine.
Surely mockers are with me,
    and my eye looks on their rebellion.
Take my guarantee.
    Who else is willing to make an agreement?
You’ve closed their mind to insight;
    therefore, you won’t be exalted.
He denounces his friends for gain,
    and his children’s eyes fail.
He makes me a popular proverb;
    I’m like spit in people’s faces.
My eye is weak from grief;
    my limbs like a shadow—all of them.
Those who do the right thing are amazed at this;
    the guiltless become troubled about the godless.
The innocent clings to his way;
    the one whose hands are clean grows stronger.
10 But you can bring all of them again,
    and I won’t find a wise one among you.
11 My days have passed;
    my goals are destroyed, my heart’s desires.
12 They turn night into day;
    light is near because of the darkness.
13 If I hope for the underworld[b] as my dwelling,
    lay out my bed in darkness,
14     I’ve called corruption “my father,”
    the worm, “my mother and sister.”
15     Where then is my hope?
        My hope—who can see it?
16 Will they go down with me to the underworld;[c]
    will we descend together to the dust?

Attack from a friend

18 Bildad from Shuah answered:

How long? Would you all stop talking.
    Try to understand and then we can speak.
Why are we considered beasts,
    ignorant in your sight?
To you who tear yourself in rage—
    will earth be forsaken for your sake,
    a rock be dislodged from its place?

Evil people’s fate

To be sure, the light of the wicked goes out;
    the blaze of their fire doesn’t shine.
The light in their tent becomes dark,
    and their lamp above doesn’t shine.
Their strong strides slow down;
    their plans trip themselves.
They are caught by their feet in a net;
    they walk on mesh.
A trap grabs them by the heel;
    a snare tightens on them.
10 A rope is hidden on the ground for them;
    a trap for them along the path.
11 Terrors round about scare them;
    they follow their steps.
12 Their offspring hunger;
    calamity is ready for their spouses.
13 It eats some of their skin.
    Death’s firstborn consumes their limbs.
14 They are snatched from the safety of their tent;
    it parades them before the king of terrors.
15 Nothing they own remains in their tent;
    sulfur is scattered over their home.
16 Their roots dry out below;
    their branches wither above.
17 The memory of them will perish from the earth;
    they will achieve no recognition abroad.
18 They are thrust from light into darkness,
    banished from the world.
19 They have no offspring or descendants among their people,
    no survivor in their dwelling place.
20 Their successors are appalled at what happens to them;
    their predecessors pull their hair.
21 These are surely the dwelling places of the evil;
    this is the place of the one who doesn’t know God.

Failed friendship

19 Then Job responded:

How long will you harass me
    and crush me with words?
These ten times you’ve humiliated me;
    shamelessly you insult me.
Have I really gone astray?
    If so, my error remains hidden inside me.
If you look down on me
        and use my disgrace to criticize me,
    know then that God has wronged me
        and enclosed his net over me.

God’s treatment of Job

If I cry “Violence!” I’m not answered;
    I shout—but there is no justice.
He walled up my path so I can’t pass
        and put darkness on my trail,
    stripped my honor from me,
        removed the crown from my head,
10     tore me down completely so that I’ll die, and uprooted my hope like a tree.
11 His anger burns against me;
    he considers me his enemy.
12 His troops come as one
    and construct their siege ramp[d] against me;
    they camp around my tent.

Social ostracism

13 He has distanced my family from me;
    my acquaintances are also alienated from me.
14 My visitors have ceased;
    those who know me have forgotten me.
15 My guests and female servants think me a stranger;
    I’m a foreigner in their sight.
16 I call my servant, and he doesn’t answer;
    I myself must beg him.
17 My breath stinks to my wife;
    I am odious to my children.
18 Even the young despise me;
    I get up, and they rail against me.
19 All my closest friends despise me;
    the ones I have loved turn against me.

Misery

20 My bones cling to my skin and flesh;
    I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
21 Pity me. Pity me. You’re my friends.
    God’s hand has truly struck me.
22 Why do you pursue me like God does,
    always hungry for my flesh?

Brief hope

23 Oh, that my words were written down,
        inscribed on a scroll
24     with an iron instrument and lead,
        forever engraved on stone.
25 But I know that my redeemer[e] is alive
        and afterward he’ll rise upon the dust.
26 After my skin has been torn apart this way—
    then from my flesh[f] I’ll see God,
27         whom I’ll see myself—
        my eyes see,[g] and not a stranger’s.
    I am utterly dejected.

Warning

28 You say, “How will we pursue him
    so that the root of the matter can be found in him?”[h]
29 You ought to fear the sword yourselves,
    for wrath brings punishment by the sword.
    You should know that there is judgment.

Footnotes

  1. Job 17:1 Or graves
  2. Job 17:13 Heb Sheol
  3. Job 17:16 Heb Sheol
  4. Job 19:12 Or their road
  5. Job 19:25 Or avenger
  6. Job 19:26 Or without my flesh or in my flesh
  7. Job 19:27 Or have seen
  8. Job 19:28 Heb manuscripts; MT in me

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