English Standard Version ESV
New Revised Standard NRS
1 Then Job answered and said:
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Then Job answered:
2 “How long will you torment me and break me in pieces with words?
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"How long will you torment me, and break me in pieces with words?
3 These ten times you have cast reproach upon me; are you not ashamed to wrong me?
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These ten times you have cast reproach upon me; are you not ashamed to wrong me?
4 And even if it be true that I have erred, my error remains with myself.
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And even if it is true that I have erred, my error remains with me.
5 If indeed you magnify yourselves against me and make my disgrace an argument against me,
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If indeed you magnify yourselves against me, and make my humiliation an argument against me,
6 know then that God has put me in the wrong and closed his net about me.
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know then that God has put me in the wrong, and closed his net around me.
7 Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence! ’ but I am not answered; I call for help, but there is no justice.
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Even when I cry out, "Violence!' I am not answered; I call aloud, but there is no justice.
8 He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness upon my paths.
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He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness upon my paths.
9 He has stripped from me my glory and taken the crown from my head.
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He has stripped my glory from me, and taken the crown from my head.
10 He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.
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He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, he has uprooted my hope like a tree.
11 He has kindled his wrath against me and counts me as his adversary.
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He has kindled his wrath against me, and counts me as his adversary.
12 His troops come on together; they have cast up their siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent.
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His troops come on together; they have thrown up siegeworks against me, and encamp around my tent.
13 “He has put my brothers far from me, and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me.
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"He has put my family far from me, and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
14 My relatives have failed me, my close friends have forgotten me.
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My relatives and my close friends have failed me;
15 The guests in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their eyes.
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the guests in my house have forgotten me; my serving girls count me as a stranger; I have become an alien in their eyes.
16 I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.
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I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must myself plead with him.
17 My breath is strange to my wife, and I am a stench to the children of my own mother.
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My breath is repulsive to my wife; I am loathsome to my own family.
18 Even young children despise me; when I rise they talk against me.
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Even young children despise me; when I rise, they talk against me.
19 All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me.
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All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me.
20 My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
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My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
21 Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!
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Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!
22 Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?
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Why do you, like God, pursue me, never satisfied with my flesh?
23 “Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
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"O that my words were written down! O that they were inscribed in a book!
24 Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!
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O that with an iron pen and with lead they were engraved on a rock forever!
25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
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For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth;
26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God,
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and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God,
27 whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!
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whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!
28 If you say, ‘How we will pursue him! ’and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him, ’
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If you say, "How we will persecute him!' and, "The root of the matter is found in him';
29 be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment. ”
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be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment."
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®) © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2025
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.