New Revised Standard NRS
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 Then Job answered:
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And Job made answer and said,
2 "How long will you torment me, and break me in pieces with words?
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How long will you make my life bitter, crushing me with words?
3 These ten times you have cast reproach upon me; are you not ashamed to wrong me?
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Ten times now you have made sport of me; it gives you no sense of shame to do me wrong.
4 And even if it is true that I have erred, my error remains with me.
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And, truly, if I have been in error, the effect of my error is only on myself.
5 If indeed you magnify yourselves against me, and make my humiliation an argument against me,
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If you make yourselves great against me, using my punishment as an argument against me,
6 know then that God has put me in the wrong, and closed his net around me.
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Be certain that it is God who has done me wrong, and has taken me in his net.
7 Even when I cry out, "Violence!' I am not answered; I call aloud, but there is no justice.
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Truly, I make an outcry against the violent man, but there is no answer: I give a cry for help, but no one takes up my cause.
8 He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness upon my paths.
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My way is walled up by him so that I may not go by: he has made my roads dark.
9 He has stripped my glory from me, and taken the crown from my head.
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He has put off my glory from me, and taken the crown from my head.
10 He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, he has uprooted my hope like a tree.
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I am broken down by him on every side, and I am gone; my hope is uprooted like a tree.
11 He has kindled his wrath against me, and counts me as his adversary.
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His wrath is burning against me, and I am to him as one of his haters.
12 His troops come on together; they have thrown up siegeworks against me, and encamp around my tent.
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His armies come on together, they make their road high against me, and put up their tents round mine.
13 "He has put my family far from me, and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
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He has taken my brothers far away from me; they have seen my fate and have become strange to me.
14 My relatives and my close friends have failed me;
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My relations and my near friends have given me up, and those living in my house have put me out of their minds.
15 the guests in my house have forgotten me; my serving girls count me as a stranger; I have become an alien in their eyes.
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I am strange to my women-servants, and seem to them as one from another country.
16 I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must myself plead with him.
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At my cry my servant gives me no answer, and I have to make a prayer to him.
17 My breath is repulsive to my wife; I am loathsome to my own family.
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My breath is strange to my wife, and I am disgusting to the offspring of my mother's body.
18 Even young children despise me; when I rise, they talk against me.
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Even young children have no respect for me; when I get up their backs are turned on me.
19 All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me.
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All the men of my circle keep away from me; and those dear to me are turned against me.
20 My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
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My bones are joined to my skin, and I have got away with my flesh in my teeth.
21 Have pity on me, have pity 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 my friends! for the hand of God is on me.
22 Why do you, like God, pursue me, never satisfied with my flesh?
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Why are you cruel to me, like God, for ever saying evil against me?
23 "O that my words were written down! O that they were inscribed in a book!
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If only my words might be recorded! if they might be put in writing in a book!
24 O that with an iron pen and with lead they were engraved on a rock forever!
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And with an iron pen and lead be cut into the rock for ever!
25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth;
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But I am certain that he who will take up my cause is living, and that in time to come he will take his place on the dust;
26 and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God,
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And ... without my flesh I will see God;
27 whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!
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Whom I will see on my side, and not as one strange to me. My heart is broken with desire.
28 If you say, "How we will persecute him!' and, "The root of the matter is found in him';
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If you say, How cruel we will be to him! because the root of sin is clearly in him:
29 be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment."
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Be in fear of the sword, for the sword is the punishment for such things, so that you may be certain that there is a judge.
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.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.