New International Version NIV
Good News Translation GNT
1 Then Job replied:
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Why do you keep tormenting me
2 “How long will you torment me and crush me with words?
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with words?
3 Ten times now you have reproached me; shamelessly you attack me.
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Time after time you insult me and show no shame for the way you abuse me.
4 If it is true that I have gone astray, my error remains my concern alone.
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Even if I have done wrong, how does that hurt you?
5 If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my humiliation against me,
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You think you are better than I am, and regard my troubles as proof of my guilt.
6 then know that God has wronged me and drawn his net around me.
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Can't you see it is God who has done this? He has set a trap to catch me.
7 “Though I cry, ‘Violence!’ I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice.
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I protest his violence, but no one is listening; no one hears my cry for justice.
8 He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; he has shrouded my paths in darkness.
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God has blocked the way, and I can't get through; he has hidden my path in darkness.
9 He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head.
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He has taken away all my wealth and destroyed my reputation.
10 He tears me down on every side till I am gone; he uproots my hope 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 His anger burns against me; he counts me among his enemies.
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God is angry and rages against me; he treats me like his worst enemy.
12 His troops advance in force; they build a siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent.
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He sends his army to attack me; they dig trenches and lay siege to my tent.
13 “He has alienated my family from me; my acquaintances are completely 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 relatives have gone away; my closest friends have forgotten me.
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my relatives and friends are gone.
15 My guests and my female servants count me a foreigner; they look on me as on a stranger.
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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 summon my servant, but he does not answer, though I beg him with my own 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 offensive to my wife; I am loathsome to my own family.
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My wife can't stand the smell of my breath, and my own brothers won't come near me.
18 Even the little boys scorn me; when I appear, they ridicule me.
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Children despise me and laugh when they see me.
19 All my intimate friends detest me; those I love have turned against me.
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My closest friends look at me with disgust; those I loved most have turned against me.
20 I am nothing but skin and bones; I have escaped only by 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 on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.
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You are my friends! Take pity on me! The hand of God has struck me down.
22 Why do you pursue me as God does? Will you never get enough of 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 recorded, that they were written on a scroll,
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How I wish that someone would remember my words and record them in a book!
24 that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever!
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Or with a chisel carve my words in stone and write them so that they would last forever.
25 I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
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But I know there is someone in heaven who will come at last to my defense.
26 And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;
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Even after my skin is eaten by disease, while still in this body I will see God.
27 I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns 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 “If you say, ‘How we will hound him, since the root of the trouble lies in him, ’
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"How can we torment him?" You looked for some excuse to attack me.
29 you should fear the sword yourselves; for wrath will bring punishment by the sword, and then you will know that there is 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.
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.