Job 19-20

Job 19

¹And Job made answer and said,

²How long will you make my life bitter, crushing me with words?

³Ten times now you have made sport of me; it gives you no sense of shame to do me wrong.

⁴And, truly, if I have been in error, the effect of my error is only on myself.

⁵If you make yourselves great against me, using my punishment as an argument against me,

⁶Be certain that it is God who has done me wrong, and has taken me in his net.

⁷Truly, I make an outcry against the violent man, but there is no answer: I give a cry for help, but no one takes up my cause.

⁸My way is walled up by him so that I may not go by: he has made my roads dark.

⁹He has put off my glory from me, and taken the crown from my head.

¹⁰I am broken down by him on every side, and I am gone; my hope is uprooted like a tree.

¹¹His wrath is burning against me, and I am to him as one of his haters.

¹²His armies come on together, they make their road high against me, and put up their tents round mine.

¹³He has taken my brothers far away from me; they have seen my fate and have become strange to me.

¹⁴My relations and my near friends have given me up, and those living in my house have put me out of their minds.

¹⁵I am strange to my women-servants, and seem to them as one from another country.

¹⁶At my cry my servant gives me no answer, and I have to make a prayer to him.

¹⁷My breath is strange to my wife, and I am disgusting to the offspring of my mother's body.

¹⁸Even young children have no respect for me; when I get up their backs are turned on me.

¹⁹All the men of my circle keep away from me; and those dear to me are turned against me.

²⁰My bones are joined to my skin, and I have got away with my flesh in my teeth.

²¹Have pity on me, have pity on me, O my friends! for the hand of God is on me.

²²Why are you cruel to me, like God, for ever saying evil against me?

²³If only my words might be recorded! if they might be put in writing in a book!

²⁴And with an iron pen and lead be cut into the rock for ever!

²⁵But I am certain that he who will take up my cause is living, and that in time to come he will take his place on the dust;

²⁶And ... without my flesh I will see God;

²⁷Whom I will see on my side, and not as one strange to me. My heart is broken with desire.

²⁸If you say, How cruel we will be to him! because the root of sin is clearly in him:

²⁹Be in fear of the sword, for the sword is the punishment for such things, so that you may be certain that there is a judge.

Job 20

¹Then Zophar the Naamathite made answer and said,

²For this cause my thoughts are troubling me and driving me on.

³I have to give ear to arguments which put me to shame, and your answers to me are wind without wisdom.

⁴Have you knowledge of this from early times, when man was placed on the earth,

⁵That the pride of the sinner is short, and the joy of the evil-doer but for a minute?

⁶Though he is lifted up to the heavens, and his head goes up to the clouds;

⁷Like the waste from his body he comes to an end for ever: those who have seen him say, Where is he?

⁸He is gone like a dream, and is not seen again; he goes in flight like a vision of the night.

⁹The eye which saw him sees him no longer; and his place has no more knowledge of him.

¹⁰His children are hoping that the poor will be kind to them, and his hands give back his wealth.

¹¹His bones are full of young strength, but it will go down with him into the dust.

¹²Though evil-doing is sweet in his mouth, and he keeps it secretly under his tongue;

¹³Though he takes care of it, and does not let it go, but keeps it still in his mouth;

¹⁴His food becomes bitter in his stomach; the poison of snakes is inside him.

¹⁵He takes down wealth as food, and sends it up again; it is forced out of his stomach by God.

¹⁶He takes the poison of snakes into his mouth, the tongue of the snake is the cause of his death.

¹⁷Let him not see the rivers of oil, the streams of honey and milk.

¹⁸He is forced to give back the fruit of his work, and may not take it for food; he has no joy in the profit of his trading.

¹⁹Because he has been cruel to the poor, turning away from them in their trouble; because he has taken a house by force which he did not put up;

²⁰There is no peace for him in his wealth, and no salvation for him in those things in which he took delight.

²¹He had never enough for his desire; for this cause his well-being will quickly come to an end.

²²Even when his wealth is great, he is full of care, for the hand of everyone who is in trouble is turned against him.

²³God gives him his desire, and sends the heat of his wrath on him, making it come down on him like rain.

²⁴He may go in flight from the iron spear, but the arrow from the bow of brass will go through him;

²⁵He is pulling it out, and it comes out of his back; and its shining point comes out of his side; he is overcome by fears.

²⁶All his wealth is stored up for the dark: a fire not made by man sends destruction on him, and on everything in his tent.

²⁷The heavens make clear his sin, and the earth gives witness against him.

²⁸The produce of his house is taken away into another country, like things given into the hands of others in the day of wrath.

²⁹This is the reward of the evil man, and the heritage given to him by God.