Job's Reply to Bildad

How Long Will You Torture Me?

1Job said:

2How long will you torture me

with your words?

3Isn't ten times enough

for you to accuse me?

Aren't you ashamed?

4Even if I have sinned,

you haven't been harmed.

5You boast of your goodness,

claiming I am suffering

because I am guilty.

6But God is the one at fault

for finding fault with me.

7Though I pray to be rescued

from this torment,

no whisper of justice

answers me.

8God has me trapped

with a wall of darkness

9and stripped of respect.

10God rips me apart,

uproots my hopes,

11and attacks with fierce anger,

as though I were his enemy.

12His entire army advances,

then surrounds my tent.

I Am Forgotten

* 13God has turned relatives

and friends against me,

14and I am forgotten.

15My guests and my servants

consider me a stranger,

16and when I call my servants,

they pay no attention.

17My breath disgusts my wife;

everyone in my family

turns away.

18Young children can't stand me,

and when I come near,

they make fun.

19 My best friends and loved ones

have turned from me.

20I am skin and bones—

just barely alive.

21My friends, I beg you for pity!

God has made me his target.

22Hasn't he already done enough?

Why do you join the attack?

23I wish that my words

could be written down

24or chiseled into rock.

25I know that my Protector+ lives,

and at the end

he will stand on this earth.

26My flesh may be destroyed,

yet from this body

I will see God.+

27Yes, I will see him for myself,

and I long for that moment.

28My friends, you think up ways

to blame and torment me, saying

I brought it on myself.

29But watch out for the judgment,

when God will punish you!