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Job Keeps On Talking

17 “My spirit is broken. My days are gone. The grave is ready for me. For sure those with me make fun of me. My eyes see how they laugh at me.

“Promise that You will hear me. Who is there that will trust me? For You have kept their heart from understanding, so You will not honor them. If one speaks against friends to get money, the eyes of his children also will become weak.

“But He has made me an object of shame to the people. Men spit on me. My eyes have become weak with sorrow. All the parts of my body are like a shadow. Men who are right and good will be surprised and afraid at this. He who is without guilt will be moved to go against the sinful. But the one who is right with God will hold to his way. And he who has clean hands will become stronger and stronger. 10 But all of you try again, and I will not find a wise man among you. 11 My days are past. My plans are torn apart, even the wishes of my heart. 12 They make night into day, saying, ‘The light is near,’ when there is darkness. 13 If I look for the place of the dead as my home, I make my bed in the darkness. 14 If I say to the grave, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother and my sister,’ 15 then where is my hope? Who sees hope for me? 16 Will it go down with me to the place of the dead? Will we go down together into the dust?”

Bildad Talks

18 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered, “How long will you keep talking? Show understanding and then we can talk. Why are we thought of as animals? Why do you see us as not being able to think? You who tear yourself in your anger, will the earth be left alone because of you? Or will the rocks be moved from their place?

“Yes, the light of the sinful is put out. His fire does not give light. The light in his tent is made dark, and his lamp goes out above him. His strong steps are made short, and his own plans make him fall. For he is thrown down into a net by his own feet and walks on it. A trap catches him by the foot and holds him. 10 A tied rope is hidden in the ground for him. A trap is set for him on the path. 11 He is filled with fear on every side. It follows him at every step. 12 His strength leaves him because trouble is waiting for him at every side. 13 His skin is eaten by disease and the beginning of death eats his legs. 14 He is taken away from his tent where he was safe, and is brought to the king of fears. 15 Fire destroys everything in his tent and sulphur is spread where he lives. 16 His roots are dried below and his branch is cut off above. 17 No one on earth will remember him. His name will not be known in the land. 18 He is sent from light into darkness, and driven away from where people live. 19 He has no children among his people to carry on his name where he lived. 20 Those in the west are surprised and afraid at what happened to him. And those in the east are filled with fear. 21 For sure, these are the houses of the sinful. This is the place of him who does not know God.”

Job Talks

19 Then Job answered, “How long will you make me suffer and crush me with words? Ten times you have put me to shame and are not ashamed to wrong me. Even if it is true that I have done wrong, it stays with me. You put yourselves up high against me, and try to prove my shame to me. You will know then that God has wronged me, and has set a trap around me.

“See, I cry, ‘Someone is hurting me!’ but I get no answer. I call for help, but no one stands for what is right and fair. He has built a wall in my way so that I cannot pass. And He has put darkness on my paths. He has taken my honor from me, and taken the crown from my head. 10 He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone. He has pulled up my hope like a tree. 11 He has made His anger burn against me, and thinks of me as one who fights against Him. 12 His armies come together and build a path against me. They camp around my tent.

13 “He has taken my brothers far away from me and my friends have all left me. 14 My brothers have left me, and my close friends have forgotten me. 15 Those who live in my house and my women servants think of me as a stranger. I am like one from another country in their eyes. 16 I call to my servant, but he does not answer. I have to beg him. 17 My breath smells bad to my wife, and I am hated by my own brothers. 18 Even young children hate me. When I get up they speak against me. 19 All my friends hate me. Those I love have turned against me. 20 I am only skin and flesh. And I have gotten away only by the skin of my teeth. 21 Have pity on me. Have pity on me, O you my friends. For the hand of God has hit me. 22 Why do you make it hard for me as God does? Have I not suffered enough to please you?

23 “If only my words were written! If only they were written down in a book! 24 If only they were cut forever into the rock with an iron cutter and lead! 25 But as for me, I know that the One Who bought me and made me free from sin lives, and that He will stand upon the earth in the end. 26 Even after my skin is destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. 27 I myself will see Him. With my own eyes I will see Him and not another. My heart becomes weak within me. 28 If you say, ‘How will we make it hard for him?’ and, ‘The root of the problem is in him,’ 29 you should be afraid of the sword for yourselves. For anger is punished by the sword, that you may know there is punishment for wrong-doing.”