Hebrew Names Version HNV
The Message Bible MSG
1 Then Iyov answered,
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Job answered:
2 "How long will you torment me, And crush me with words?
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"How long are you going to keep battering away at me, pounding me with these harangues?
3 You have reproached me ten times. You aren't ashamed that you attack me.
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Time after time after time you jump all over me. Do you have no conscience, abusing me like this?
4 If it is true that I have erred, My error remains with myself.
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Even if I have, somehow or other, gotten off the track, what business is that of yours?
5 If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, And plead against me my reproach;
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Why do you insist on putting me down, using my troubles as a stick to beat me?
6 Know now that God has subverted me, And has surrounded me with his net.
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Tell it to God - he's the one behind all this, he's the one who dragged me into this mess.
7 "Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry for help, but there is no justice.
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"Look at me - I shout 'Murder!' and I'm ignored; I call for help and no one bothers to stop.
8 He has walled up my way so that I can't pass, And has set darkness in my paths.
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God threw a barricade across my path - I'm stymied; he turned out all the lights - I'm stuck in the dark.
9 He has stripped me of my glory, And taken the crown from my head.
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He destroyed my reputation, robbed me of all self-respect.
10 He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. My hope he has plucked up like a tree.
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He tore me apart piece by piece - I'm ruined! Then he yanked out hope by the roots.
11 He has also kindled his wrath against me. He counts me among his adversaries.
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He's angry with me - oh, how he's angry! He treats me like his worst enemy.
12 His troops come on together, Build a siege ramp against me, And encamp around my tent.
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He has launched a major campaign against me, using every weapon he can think of, coming at me from all sides at once. I Know That God Lives
13 "He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
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"God alienated my family from me;
14 My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me.
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everyone who knows me avoids me. My relatives and friends have all left; houseguests forget I ever existed.
15 Those who dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger. I am an alien in their sight.
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The servant girls treat me like a bum off the street, look at me like they've never seen me before.
16 I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer; I beg him with my mouth.
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I call my attendant and he ignores me, ignores me even though I plead with him.
17 My breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.
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My wife can't stand to be around me anymore. I'm repulsive to my family.
18 Even young children despise me. If I arise, they speak against me.
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Even street urchins despise me; when I come out, they taunt and jeer.
19 All my familiar friends abhor me. They whom I loved have turned against me.
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Everyone I've ever been close to abhors me; my dearest loved ones reject me.
20 My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
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I'm nothing but a bag of bones; my life hangs by a thread.
21 "Have pity on me, have pity on me, you my friends; For the hand of God has touched me.
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"Oh, friends, dear friends, take pity on me. God has come down hard on me!
22 Why do you persecute me as God, And are not satisfied with my flesh?
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Do you have to be hard on me too? Don't you ever tire of abusing me?
23 "Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
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"If only my words were written in a book -
24 That with an iron pen and lead They were engraved in the rock forever!
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better yet, chiseled in stone!
25 But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the eretz.
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Still, I know that God lives - the One who gives me back my life - and eventually he'll take his stand on earth.
26 After my skin is destroyed, Then in my flesh shall I see God,
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And I'll see him - even though I get skinned alive! -
27 Whom I, even I, shall see on my side. My eyes shall see, and not as a stranger. "My heart is consumed within me.
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see God myself, with my very own eyes. Oh, how I long for that day!
28 If you say, 'How we will persecute him!' Because the root of the matter is found in me,
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"If you're thinking, 'How can we get through to him, get him to see that his trouble is all his own fault?'
29 Be afraid of the sword, For wrath brings the punishments of the sword, That you may know there is a judgment."
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Forget it. Start worrying about yourselves. Worry about your own sins and God's coming judgment, for judgment is most certainly on the way."
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.