Job 19-20

Common English Bible

² How long will you harass me
    and crush me with words?
³ These ten times you’ve humiliated me;
    shamelessly you insult me.
⁴ Have I really gone astray?
    If so, my error remains hidden inside me.
⁵ If you look down on me
        and use my disgrace to criticize me,
⁶     know then that God has wronged me
        and enclosed his net over me.

⁷ If I cry “Violence!” I’m not answered;
    I shout—but there is no justice.
⁸ He walled up my path so I can’t pass
        and put darkness on my trail,
⁹     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^[a] against me;
    they camp around my tent.

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.

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?

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^[b] is alive
        and afterward he’ll rise upon the dust.
²⁶ After my skin has been torn apart this way—
    then from my flesh^[c] I’ll see God,
²⁷         whom I’ll see myself—
        my eyes see,^[d] and not a stranger’s.
    I am utterly dejected.

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

² Therefore, my troubled thoughts make me turn back—
    because of my inner turmoil.
³ I hear teaching that insults me,
    but I am forced to answer based on my own understanding.^[f]
4 Do you know this from long ago—
        from when humans were placed on earth—
⁵     that the rejoicing of the wicked is short,
        the joy of the godless, brief?
⁶ Though their height reaches heaven
    and their heads touch the clouds,
⁷     they will perish forever like their dung;
    those who saw them will say, “Where are they?”
⁸ They will disappear like a dream,
        and none will find them,
    carried away like a nighttime vision.
⁹ The eye that saw them will do so no more;
    they won’t be seen again at home.
¹⁰ Their children will repay the poor;
    their hands will give back their wealth.
¹¹ Vigor filled their bones
    and now sleeps with them in the dust.
¹² Though wickedness is sweet in their mouths,
    they hide it under their tongues;
¹³     they like it, won’t let it go;
    they hold it in their cheeks.
¹⁴ Food turns their stomachs,
    becoming a cobra’s poison inside.
¹⁵ They swallow wealth and vomit it;
    God dislodges it from their belly.
¹⁶ They suck cobra’s poison;
    a viper’s tongue kills them.
¹⁷ They won’t experience streams,
    rivers of honey, and brooks of cream.
¹⁸ They won’t receive the reward for their labor;
    they won’t enjoy the wealth from their business.
¹⁹ They crushed and abandoned the poor;
    stole a house they didn’t build;
²⁰     didn’t know contentment in their belly;
    couldn’t escape with their treasure.
²¹ Nothing remained of their food,
    so their riches will not endure.
²² Even in their plenty, they are hard-pressed;
    all sorts of trouble come on them.
²³ Let God^[g] fill their belly,
    unleash his burning anger on them,
    rain punishing blows on them.
²⁴ If they flee an iron weapon,
    a bronze bow pierces them.
²⁵ They pull it out, but it sticks out from their backs;
    its shaft in their liver brings terror.
²⁶ Complete darkness waits for their treasured possessions;
    fire that no one stoked consumes them;
        what’s left in their tent is ruined.
²⁷ Heaven exposes their guilt;
    earth opposes them.
²⁸ Their household wealth will be carried off
    by rushing streams on the day of his anger.
²⁹ This is a wicked person’s lot from God,
    their heritage decreed by God.