Holman Christian Standard Bible

New Living Translation

1Then Job answered:

1Then Job spoke again:

2How long will you torment me and crush me with words?

2“How long will you torture me? How long will you try to crush me with your words?

3You have humiliated me ten times now, and you mistreat me without shame.

3You have already insulted me ten times. You should be ashamed of treating me so badly.

4Even if it is true that I have sinned, my mistake concerns only me.

4Even if I have sinned, that is my concern, not yours.

5If you really want to appear superior to me and would use my disgrace as evidence against me,

5You think you’re better than I am, using my humiliation as evidence of my sin.

6then understand that it is God who has wronged me and caught me in His net.

6But it is God who has wronged me, capturing me in his net.

7I cry out: "Violence!" but get no response; I call for help, but there is no justice.

7“I cry out, ‘Help!’ but no one answers me. I protest, but there is no justice.

8He has blocked my way so that I cannot pass through; He has veiled my paths with darkness.

8God has blocked my way so I cannot move. He has plunged my path into darkness.

9He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head.

9He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head.

10He tears me down on every side so that I am ruined. He uproots my hope like a tree.

10He has demolished me on every side, and I am finished. He has uprooted my hope like a fallen tree.

11His anger burns against me, and He regards me as one of His enemies.

11His fury burns against me; he counts me as an enemy.

12His troops advance together; they construct a ramp against me and camp around my tent.

12His troops advance. They build up roads to attack me. They camp all around my tent.

13He has removed my brothers from me; my acquaintances have abandoned me.

13“My relatives stay far away, and my friends have turned against me.

14My relatives stop coming by, and my close friends have forgotten me.

14My family is gone, and my close friends have forgotten me.

15My house guests and female servants regard me as a stranger; I am a foreigner in their sight.

15My servants and maids consider me a stranger. I am like a foreigner to them.

16I call for my servant, but he does not answer, even if I beg him with my own mouth.

16When I call my servant, he doesn’t come; I have to plead with him!

17My breath is offensive to my wife, and my own family finds me repulsive.

17My breath is repulsive to my wife. I am rejected by my own family.

18Even young boys scorn me. When I stand up, they mock me.

18Even young children despise me. When I stand to speak, they turn their backs on me.

19All of my best friends despise me, and those I love have turned against me.

19My close friends detest me. Those I loved have turned against me.

20My skin and my flesh cling to my bones; I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

20I have been reduced to skin and bones and have escaped death by the skin of my teeth.

21Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy, for God's hand has struck me.

21“Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy, for the hand of God has struck me.

22Why do you persecute me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh?

22Must you also persecute me, like God does? Haven’t you chewed me up enough?

23I wish that my words were written down, that they were recorded on a scroll

23“Oh, that my words could be recorded. Oh, that they could be inscribed on a monument,

24or were inscribed in stone forever by an iron stylus and lead!

24carved with an iron chisel and filled with lead, engraved forever in the rock.

25But I know my living Redeemer, and He will stand on the dust at last.

25“But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last.

26Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet I will see God in my flesh.

26And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God!

27I will see Him myself; my eyes will look at Him, and not as a stranger. My heart longs within me.

27I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought!

28If you say, "How will we pursue him, since the root of the problem lies with him?"

28“How dare you go on persecuting me, saying, ‘It’s his own fault’?

29then be afraid of the sword, because wrath brings punishment by the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment.

29You should fear punishment yourselves, for your attitude deserves punishment. Then you will know that there is indeed a judgment.”

Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission.

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.