Study Desk

Then Job answered:

How long will you torment me and crush me with words?

You have humiliated me ten times now, and you mistreat^[a] me without shame.^(a)

Even if it is true that I have sinned, my mistake concerns only^[b] me.

If you really want to appear superior^(b) to me and would use my disgrace as evidence against me,

then understand that it is God who has wronged me and caught me in His net.^(c)

I cry out: "Violence!" but get no response;^(d) I call for help, but there is no justice.

He has blocked^(e) my way so that I cannot pass through; He has veiled my paths with darkness.^(f)

He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head.

He tears me down on every side so that I am ruined.^[c] He uproots my hope like a tree.^(g)

His anger^(h) burns against me, and He regards me as one of His enemies.⁽ⁱ⁾

His troops advance together; they construct a ramp^[d] against me and camp^(j) around my tent.

He has removed my brothers from me; my acquaintances have abandoned me.^(k)

My relatives stop coming by, and my close friends have forgotten me.

My house guests^[e] and female servants regard me as a stranger; I am a foreigner in their sight.^(l)

I call for my servant, but he does not answer, even if I beg him with my own mouth.

My breath is offensive to my wife, and my own family^[f] finds me repulsive.

Even young boys scorn me. When I stand up, they mock me.^(m)

All of my best friends^[g] despise me,⁽ⁿ⁾ and those I love have turned against me.^(o)

My skin and my flesh cling to my bones; I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

Have mercy on me, my friends,^(p) have mercy, for God's hand^(q) has struck me.^(r)

Why do you persecute me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh?

I wish that my words were written down, that they were recorded on a scroll

or were inscribed in stone forever by an iron stylus and lead!

But I know my living Redeemer,^[h](s) and He will stand on the dust^[i] at last.^[j](t)

Even after my skin has been destroyed,^[k] yet I will see God in^[l] my flesh.^(u)

I will see Him myself; my eyes will look at Him, and not as a stranger.^[m] My heart longs^[n] within me.^(v)

If you say, "How will we pursue him, since the root of the problem lies with him?"^[o]

then be afraid of the sword, because wrath brings punishment by the sword,^(w) so that you may know there is a judgment.

Then Zophar the Naamathite^(a) replied:

This is why my unsettling thoughts compel me to answer, because I am upset!^[a]

I have heard a rebuke that insults me, and my understanding^[b] makes me reply.^(b)

Don't you know that ever since antiquity, from the time man was placed on earth,

the joy of the wicked has been brief and the happiness of the godless has lasted only a moment?^(c)

Though his arrogance reaches heaven, and his head touches the clouds,^(d)

he will vanish forever like his own dung. Those who know^[c] him will ask, "Where is he?"^(e)

He will fly away like a dream and never be found; he will be chased away like a vision in the night.^(f)

The eye that saw him will see him no more,^(g) and his household will no longer see him.^(h)

His children will beg from^[d] the poor, for his own hands must give back his wealth.

His bones may be full of youthful vigor, but will lie down with him in the grave.⁽ⁱ⁾

Though evil tastes sweet in his mouth and he conceals it under his tongue,

though he cherishes it and will not let it go but keeps it in his mouth,^(j)

yet the food in his stomach turns into cobras' venom inside him.

He swallows wealth but must vomit it up; God will force it from his stomach.

He will suck the poison of cobras; a viper's fangs^[e] will kill him.^(k)

He will not enjoy the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and cream.^(l)

He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it; he doesn't enjoy the profits from his trading.

For he oppressed and abandoned the poor; he seized a house he did not build.^(m)

Because his appetite is never satisfied,^[f] he does not let anything he desires escape.

Nothing is left for him to consume;⁽ⁿ⁾ therefore, his prosperity will not last.

At the height of his success^[g] distress will come to him;^(o) the full weight of misery^[h] will crush him.

When he fills his stomach, God will send His burning anger against him, raining^(p) it down on him while he is eating.^[i]

If he flees from an iron weapon, an arrow from a bronze bow will pierce him.

He pulls it out of his back, the flashing tip out of his liver.^[j] Terrors come over him.^(q)

Total darkness is reserved for his treasures. A fire unfanned by human hands will consume^(r) him; it will feed on what is left in his tent.

The heavens will expose his iniquity,^(s) and the earth will rise up against him.^(t)

The possessions in his house will be removed, flowing away on the day of God's anger.

This is the wicked man's lot^(u) from God, the inheritance God ordained for him.