King James Version KJV
Good News Translation GNT
1 Then Job answered and said,
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Why do you keep tormenting me
2 How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?
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with words?
3 These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.
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Time after time you insult me and show no shame for the way you abuse me.
4 And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.
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Even if I have done wrong, how does that hurt you?
5 If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:
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You think you are better than I am, and regard my troubles as proof of my guilt.
6 Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.
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Can't you see it is God who has done this? He has set a trap to catch me.
7 Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.
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I protest his violence, but no one is listening; no one hears my cry for justice.
8 He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.
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God has blocked the way, and I can't get through; he has hidden my path in darkness.
9 He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.
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He has taken away all my wealth and destroyed my reputation.
10 He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.
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He batters me from every side. He uproots my hope and leaves me to wither and die.
11 He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.
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God is angry and rages against me; he treats me like his worst enemy.
12 His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.
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He sends his army to attack me; they dig trenches and lay siege to my tent.
13 He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.
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God has made my own family forsake me; I am a stranger to those who knew me;
14 My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.
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my relatives and friends are gone.
15 They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.
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Those who were guests in my house have forgotten me; my servant women treat me like a stranger and a foreigner.
16 I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.
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When I call a servant, he doesn't answer - even when I beg him to help me.
17 My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's sake of mine own body.
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My wife can't stand the smell of my breath, and my own brothers won't come near me.
18 Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.
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Children despise me and laugh when they see me.
19 All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.
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My closest friends look at me with disgust; those I loved most have turned against me.
20 My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
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My skin hangs loose on my bones; I have barely escaped with my life.
21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.
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You are my friends! Take pity on me! The hand of God has struck me down.
22 Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
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Why must you persecute me the way God does? Haven't you tormented me enough?
23 Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!
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How I wish that someone would remember my words and record them in a book!
24 That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!
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Or with a chisel carve my words in stone and write them so that they would last forever.
25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
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But I know there is someone in heaven who will come at last to my defense.
26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
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Even after my skin is eaten by disease, while still in this body I will see God.
27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.
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I will see him with my own eyes, and he will not be a stranger. My courage failed because you said,
28 But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?
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"How can we torment him?" You looked for some excuse to attack me.
29 Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.
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But now, be afraid of the sword - the sword that brings God's wrath on sin, so that you will know there is one who judges.
The King James Version is in the public domain.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.