Job’s Reply to Bildad
1Then Job answered:
2How long will you torment me
and crush me with words?
3You have humiliated me ten times now,
and you mistreat Hb obscure me without shame. Gn 31:7; Nm 14:22; Pr 25:8
4Even if it is true that I have sinned,
my mistake concerns only Lit mistake lives with me.
5If you really want to appear superior Ps 35:26; 38:16; 55:12 to me
and would use my disgrace as evidence against me,
6then understand that it is God who has wronged me
and caught me in His net. Jb 27:2; Lm 3:5; Ezk 12:13
7I cry out: “Violence!” but get no response; Jb 30:20; Lm 3:8; Hab 1:2
I call for help, but there is no justice.
8He has blocked Jb 3:23; Lm 3:9; Hs 2:6 my way so that I cannot pass through;
He has veiled my paths with darkness. Jb 29:3; 30:26; Is 59:9
9He has stripped me of my honor
and removed the crown from my head.
10He tears me down on every side so that I am ruined. Lit gone
He uproots my hope like a tree. Dt 28:63; Jb 24:20; Ps 52:5
11His anger Jb 16:9; 21:17; 40:11 burns against me,
and He regards me as one of His enemies. Jb 13:24; 33:10; Lm 2:5
12His troops advance together;
they construct a ramp Lit they raise up their way against me
and camp Ps 27:3; Is 29:3; Jr 50:29 around my tent.
13He has removed my brothers from me;
my acquaintances have abandoned me. Ps 31:11; 38:11; 88:8,18
14My relatives stop coming by,
and my close friends have forgotten me.
15My house guests Or The resident aliens in my household and female servants regard me as a stranger;
I am a foreigner in their sight. Gn 31:15; Ps 69:8; Mt 10:36
16I call for my servant, but he does not answer,
even if I beg him with my own mouth.
17My breath is offensive to my wife,
and my own family Lit and the sons of my belly finds me repulsive.
18Even young boys scorn me.
When I stand up, they mock me. 2Kg 2:23; Jb 29:8
and those I love have turned against me. Ps 41:9; 55:11-12; Jn 13:18
20My skin and my flesh cling to my bones;
I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
21Have mercy on me, my friends, Jb 6:14; Ps 38:11; Pr 17:17 have mercy,
for God’s hand Ru 1:13; Jb 12:9; Is 41:20 has struck me. Jb 1:11; 2:5; 6:7
22Why do you persecute me as God does?
Will you never get enough of my flesh?
23I wish that my words were written down,
that they were recorded on a scroll
24or were inscribed in stone forever
by an iron stylus and lead!
and He will stand on the dust Or earth at last. Or dust at the last, or dust as the Last One Is 44:6; 48:12; Rv 1:17-18
26Even after my skin has been destroyed, Lit skin which they destroyed, or skin they destroyed in this way
yet I will see God in Or apart from my flesh. Ps 17:15; Is 6:1; 1Co 13:12
27I will see Him myself;
my eyes will look at Him, and not as a stranger. Or not a stranger
My heart longs Lit My kidneys grow faint within me. Ps 73:26; 84:2; 119:81
28If you say, “How will we pursue him,
since the root of the problem lies with him? ” Some Hb mss, LXX, Vg; other Hb mss read me
29then be afraid of the sword,
because wrath brings punishment by the sword, Jb 15:22; Is 66:16; Ezk 32:10
so that you may know there is a judgment.
Holman Christian Standard Bible®
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by Holman Bible Publishers
