Job 19 (Holman Christian Standard)

Job's Reply to Bildad

1 Then Job answered: 2 How long will you torment me and crush me with words?^a 3 You have humiliated me ten times^b now, and you mistreat^c me without shame. 4 Even if it is true that I have sinned, my mistake concerns only^d me. 5 If you really want to appear superior to me and would use my disgrace as evidence against me,^e 6 then understand that it is God who has wronged me and caught me in His net.^f 7 I cry out: Violence! but get no response; I call for help, but there is no justice.^g 8 He has blocked my way so that I cannot pass through; He has veiled my paths with darkness.^h 9 He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head. 10 He tears me down on every side so that I am ruined.ⁱ He uproots my hope like a tree.^j 11 His anger burns against me, and He regards me as [one of] His enemies.^k 12 His troops advance together; they construct a ramp^l against me and camp around my tent.^m 13 He has removed my brothers from me; my acquaintances have abandoned me.ⁿ 14 My relatives stop coming by, and my close friends have forgotten me.^o 15 My house guests^p and female servants regard me as a stranger; I am a foreigner in their sight.^q 16 I call for my servant, but he does not answer, even if I beg him with my own mouth. 17 My breath is offensive to my wife, and my own children^r find me repulsive. 18 Even young boys scorn me. When I stand up, they mock me. 19 All of my best friends^s despise me, and those I love have turned against me.^t 20 My skin and my flesh cling to my bones; I have escaped by the skin of my teeth. 21 Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy,^u for God's hand has struck me.^v 22 Why do you persecute me as God [does]? Will you never get enough of my flesh? 23 I wish that my words were written down, that they were recorded on a scroll 24 or were inscribed in stone forever by an iron stylus and lead! 25 But I know my living Redeemer,^wx and He will stand on the dust^y at last.^zaa 26 Even after my skin has been destroyed,^bb yet I will see God in^cc my flesh.^dd 27 I will see Him myself; my eyes will look at [Him], and not as a stranger.^ee My heart longs^ff within me.^gg 28 If you say, "How will we pursue him, since the root of the problem lies with him?"^hhii 29 be afraid of the sword, because wrath [brings] punishment by the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment.^jj