Berean Study Bible

English Standard Version

1Then Job answered:

1Then Job answered and said:

2“How long will you torment me and crush me with your words?

2“How long will you torment me and break me in pieces with words?

3Ten times now you have reproached me; you shamelessly mistreat me.

3These ten times you have cast reproach upon me; are you not ashamed to wrong me?

4Even if I have truly gone astray, my error concerns me alone.

4And even if it be true that I have erred, my error remains with myself.

5If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my disgrace against me,

5If indeed you magnify yourselves against me and make my disgrace an argument against me,

6then understand that it is God who has wronged me and drawn His net around me.

6know then that God has put me in the wrong and closed his net about me.

7Though I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice.

7Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered; I call for help, but there is no justice.

8He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; He has veiled my paths with darkness.

8He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness upon my paths.

9He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head.

9He has stripped from me my glory and taken the crown from my head.

10He tears me down on every side until I am gone; He uproots my hope like a tree.

10He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.

11His anger burns against me, and He counts me among His enemies.

11He has kindled his wrath against me and counts me as his adversary.

12His troops advance together; they construct a ramp against me and encamp around my tent.

12His troops come on together; they have cast up their siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent.

13He has removed my brothers from me; my acquaintances have abandoned me.

13“He has put my brothers far from me, and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me.

14My kinsmen have failed me, and my friends have forgotten me.

14My relatives have failed me, my close friends have forgotten me.

15My guests and maidservants count me as a stranger; I am a foreigner in their sight.

15The guests in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their eyes.

16I call for my servant, but he does not answer, though I implore him with my own mouth.

16I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.

17My breath is repulsive to my wife, and I am loathsome to my own family.

17My breath is strange to my wife, and I am a stench to the children of my own mother.

18Even little boys scorn me; when I appear, they deride me.

18Even young children despise me; when I rise they talk against me.

19All my best friends despise me, and those I love have turned against me.

19All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me.

20My skin and flesh cling to my bones; I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

20My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

21Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.

21Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!

22Why do you persecute me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh?

22Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?

23I wish that my words were recorded and inscribed in a book,

23“Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

24by an iron stylus on lead, or chiseled in stone forever.

24Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!

25But I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth.

25For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.

26Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.

26And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God,

27I will see Him for myself; my eyes will behold Him, and not as a stranger. How my heart yearns within me!

27whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!

28If you say, ‘Let us persecute him, since the root of the matter lies with him,’

28If you say, ‘How we will pursue him!’ and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’

29then you should fear the sword yourselves, because wrath brings punishment by the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment.”

29be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.”

The Berean Bible (Berean Study Bible (BSB) © 2016, 2018 by Bible Hub and Berean.Bible. Used by Permission. All rights Reserved.

ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.