19 Job said in reply:
2 “How long will you keep irritating my soul,+
Crushing me with words?+
3 These ten times you have rebuked me;
You are not ashamed to deal harshly with me.+
4 And if indeed I made a mistake,
My error remains with me.
5 If you insist on exalting yourselves over me,
Claiming that the reproach against me is justified,
6 Know, then, that it is God who has misled me,
And he has caught me in his hunting net.
7 Look! I keep crying out, ‘Violence!’ but I get no answer;+
I keep crying for help, but there is no justice.+
8 My path he has blocked with a stone wall, and I cannot pass by;
He has covered my roadways with darkness.+
9 He has stripped me of my glory
And removed the crown from my head.
10 He breaks me down on all sides until I perish;
My hope he uproots like a tree.
11 His anger burns against me,
And he views me as his enemy.+
12 His troops come together and besiege me,
And they camp around my tent.
13 My own brothers he has driven far away from me,
And those who know me have turned away from me.+
14 My close companions are gone,
And those whom I knew well have forgotten me.+
15 Guests in my house+ and my slave girls consider me a stranger;
I am a foreigner in their eyes.
16 I call for my servant, but he does not respond;
With my mouth I beg him for compassion.
17 My very breath has become loathsome to my wife,+
And I am a stench to my own brothers.
18 Even young children despise me;
When I rise up, they begin jeering at me.
19 All my close friends detest me,+
And those whom I loved have turned against me.+
20 My bones stick to my skin and my flesh,+
And I escape with the skin of my teeth.
21 Show me mercy, my companions, show me mercy,
For God’s own hand has touched me.+
22 Why do you keep persecuting me as God does,+
Attacking me without letup?+
23 If only my words were written down,
If only they could be inscribed in a book!
24 O that they were carved forever in the rock,
With an iron stylus and lead!
25 For I well know that my redeemer+ is alive;
He will come later and rise up over the earth.
26 After my skin has thus been destroyed,
While yet in my flesh, I will see God,
27 Whom I will see for myself,
Whom my own eyes will see, not someone else’s.+
But deep inside I feel overwhelmed!
28 For you say, ‘In what way are we persecuting him?’+
Since the root of the problem is with me.
29 Be in fear of the sword yourselves,+
For the sword brings punishment against errors;
You should know that there is a judge.”+
20 Zoʹphar+ the Naʹa·ma·thite said in reply:
2 “This is why my own troubling thoughts urge me to answer
Because of the agitation I feel.
3 I have heard a reproof that insults me;
And my understanding impels me to reply.
4 Surely you must have always known this,
For it has been so since man was put on the earth,+
5 That the joyful cry of the wicked is brief
And the rejoicing of the godless one is for a moment.+
6 Although his greatness ascends to heaven
And his head reaches to the clouds,
7 He will perish forever like his own dung;
Those who used to see him will say, ‘Where is he?’
8 He will fly off like a dream, and they will not find him;
He will be chased away like a vision of the night.
9 The eye that once saw him will not do so again,
And his place will behold him no more.+
10 His own children will seek the favor of the poor,
And his own hands will give back his wealth.+
11 His bones were full of youthful vigor,
But it will lie down with him in mere dust.
12 If what is bad tastes sweet in his mouth,
If he hides it under his tongue,
13 If he savors it and does not let it go
But keeps holding it in his mouth,
14 His food will turn sour inside him;
It will become like the poison of cobras within him.
15 He has swallowed down wealth, but he will vomit it up;
God will empty it out of his belly.
16 The venom of cobras he will suck;
The fangs of a viper will kill him.
17 He will never see the streams of water,
The torrents of honey and butter.
18 He will give back his goods without consuming them;
He will not enjoy the wealth from his trade.+
19 For he has crushed and abandoned the poor;
He has seized a house that he did not build.
20 But he will feel no peace within himself;
His wealth will not help him escape.
21 There is nothing left for him to devour;
That is why his prosperity will not last.
22 When his wealth reaches its peak, anxiety will overtake him;
The full force of misfortune will come against him.
23 As he fills his belly,
God will send his burning anger upon him,
Raining it down upon him into his bowels.
24 When he flees from weapons of iron,
Arrows from a copper bow will pierce him.
25 He pulls an arrow from his back,
A glittering weapon from his gall,
And terror seizes him.+
26 Total darkness awaits his treasures;
A fire that no one fanned will consume him;
Calamity awaits any survivors in his tent.
27 Heaven will uncover his error;
The earth will rise up against him.
28 A flood will sweep his house away;
It will be a heavy torrent on the day of God’s anger.
29 This is the wicked man’s share from God,
The inheritance that God has decreed for him.”
21 Job said in reply:
2 “Listen carefully to what I say;
Let this be the consolation you give me.
3 Bear with me while I speak;
After I speak, you may then mock me.+
4 Is my complaint directed toward a man?
If it were, would I not lose patience?
5 Look at me and stare in amazement;
Put your hand over your mouth.
6 When I think about it, I am disturbed,
And my whole body shudders.
7 Why do the wicked live on,+
Grow old, and become wealthy?+
8 Their children are always in their presence,
And they get to see their descendants.
9 Their houses are secure, they are free from fear,+
And God does not punish them with his rod.
10 Their bulls breed without failure;
Their cows give birth and do not miscarry.
11 Their boys run outside just like a flock,
And their children skip about.
12 They sing accompanied by tambourine and harp
And rejoice at the sound of the flute.+
13 They spend their days in contentment
And go down peacefully to the Grave.
14 But they say to the true God, ‘Leave us alone!
We have no desire to know your ways.+
15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him?+
What would we gain by being acquainted with him?’+
16 But I know that they do not control their own prosperity.+
The thinking of the wicked is far from me.+
17 How often is the lamp of the wicked extinguished?+
How often does disaster come upon them?
How often does God deal out destruction to them in his anger?
18 Do they ever become like straw before the wind
And like chaff that a storm wind carries away?
19 God will store up a man’s punishment for his own sons.
But may God repay him so that he will know it.+
20 May his own eyes see his ruin,
And may he be the one to drink from the rage of the Almighty.+
21 For what does he care about what happens to his house after him
If the number of his months is cut short?+
22 Can anyone teach knowledge to God,+
When He is the one who judges even the highest ones?+
23 One man dies in his full vigor+
When he is completely carefree and at ease,+
24 When his thighs are padded with fat
And his bones are strong.
25 But another man dies deeply distressed,
Never having tasted good things.
26 Together they will lie down in the dust,+
And maggots will cover both of them.+
27 Look! I know exactly what you are thinking
And the schemes you devise to wrong me.+
28 For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prominent man,
And where is the tent in which the wicked one lived?’+
29 Have you not questioned travelers?
Do you not carefully study their observations,
30 That an evil person is spared on the day of disaster
And rescued on the day of fury?
31 Who will confront him about his way,
And who will repay him for what he has done?
32 When he is carried to the graveyard,
A vigil will be kept over his tomb.
33 The clods of earth of the valley will be sweet to him,+
And all mankind follows after him+
Like the countless number before him.
34 So why offer me meaningless comfort?+
There is nothing but deceit in your answers!”