Third Millennium Bible TMB
GOD'S WORD Translation GW
1 Then Job answered and said:
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Then Job replied [to his friends],
2 "How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?
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"How long will you torment me and depress me 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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You have insulted me ten times now. You're not even ashamed of mistreating me.
4 And if it be indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.
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Even if it were true that I've made a mistake without realizing it, my mistake would affect only me.
5 If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach,
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If you are trying to make yourselves look better than me by using my disgrace as an argument against me,
6 know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with His net.
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then I want you to know that God has wronged me and surrounded me with his net.
7 "Behold, I cry out because of wrong, but I am not heard; I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.
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Indeed, I cry, 'Help! I'm being attacked!' but I get no response. I call for help, but there is no 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 my path so that I can't go on. He has made my paths dark.
9 He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.
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He has stripped me of my honor. He has taken the crown off my head.
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 beats me down on every side until I'm gone. He uproots my hope like a tree.
11 He hath also kindled His wrath against me, and He counteth me unto Him as one of His enemies.
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He is very angry at me. He considers me to be his enemy.
12 His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.
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His troops assemble against me. They build a ramp to attack me and camp around my tent.
13 "He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintances are verily estranged from me.
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"My brothers stay far away from me. My friends are complete strangers to me.
14 My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.
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My relatives and my closest friends have stopped coming. My house guests have forgotten me.
15 They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me as a stranger; I am an alien in their sight.
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My female slaves consider me to be a stranger. I am like a foreigner to them.
16 I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I entreated him with my mouth.
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I call my slave, but he doesn't answer, though I beg him.
17 My breath is strange to my wife, though I entreated for the sake of the children of my own body.
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My breath offends my wife. I stink to my own children.
18 Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spoke against me.
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Even young children despise me. If I stand up, they make fun of me.
19 All my intimate friends abhorred me, and they whom I loved are turned against me.
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All my closest friends are disgusted with me. Those I love have turned against me.
20 My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped with the skin of my teeth.
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I am skin and bones, and I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
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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"Have pity on me, my friends! Have pity on me because God's hand has struck me down.
22 Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
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Why do you pursue me as God does? Why are you never satisfied with my flesh?
23 Oh, that my words were now written! Oh, that they were printed in a book,
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"I wish now my words were written. I wish they were inscribed on a scroll.
24 that they were graven with an iron pen and lead, in the rock for ever!
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I wish they were forever engraved on a rock with an iron stylus and lead.
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 that my defender lives, and afterwards, he will rise on the earth.
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 has been stripped off my body, I will see God in my own flesh.
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, not with someone else's. My heart fails inside me!
28 "But should ye say, `Why persecute we him?'--seeing the root of the matter is found in me.
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"You say, 'We will persecute him! The root of the problem is found in him.'
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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Fear death, because [your anger] is punishable by death. Then you will know there is a judge."
Third Millennium Bible (TMB), New Authorized Version, Copyright 1998 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc., Gary, SD 57237. All rights reserved.
GOD'S WORD® is a copyrighted work of God's Word to the Nations. Copyright © 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. All rights reserved. Used by permission.