Job 16-20

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

16 Then Job answered,

² I have heard many such things; wearisome and miserable comforters are you all!

³ Will your futile words of wind have no end? Or what makes you so bold to answer [me like this]?

⁴ I also could speak as you do, if you were in my stead; I could join words together against you and shake my head at you.

⁵ [But] I would strengthen and encourage you with [the words of] my mouth, and the consolation of my lips would soothe your suffering.

⁶ If I speak [to you miserable comforters], my sorrow is not soothed or lessened; and if I refrain [from speaking], in what way am I eased? [I hardly know whether to answer you or be silent.]

⁷ But now [God] has taken away my strength. You [O Lord] have made desolate all my family and associates.

⁸ You have laid firm hold on me and have shriveled me up, which is a witness against me; and my leanness [and wretched state of body] are further evidence [against me]; [they] testify to my face.

⁹ [^[a]My adversary Satan] has torn [me] in his wrath and hated and persecuted me; he has gnashed upon me with his teeth; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.

¹⁰ [The forces of evil] have gaped at me with their mouths; they have struck me upon the cheek insolently; they massed themselves together and conspired unanimously against me.^(A)

¹¹ God has delivered me to the ungodly (to the evil one) and cast me [headlong] into the hands of the wicked (Satan’s host).

¹² I was living at ease, but [Satan] crushed me and broke me apart; yes, he seized me by the neck and dashed me in pieces; then he set me up for his target.

¹³ [Satan’s] arrows whiz around me. He slashes open my vitals and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground.

¹⁴ [Satan] stabs me, making breach after breach and attacking again and again; he runs at me like a giant and irresistible warrior.

¹⁵ I have sewed sackcloth over my skin [as a sign of mourning] and have defiled my horn (my insignia of strength) in the dust.

¹⁶ My face is red and swollen with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death [my eyes are dimmed],

¹⁷ Although there is no guilt or violence in my hands and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸ O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry have no resting-place [where it will cease being heard].

¹⁹ Even now, behold, my Witness is in heaven, and He who vouches for me is on high.^(B)

²⁰ My friends scorn me, but my eye pours out tears to God.

²¹ Oh, that there might be one who would plead for a man with God and that he would maintain his right with Him, as a son of man pleads with or for his neighbor!^(C)

²² For when a few years are come, I shall go the way from which I shall not return.

17 My spirit is broken, my days are spent (snuffed out); the grave is ready for me.

² Surely there are mockers and mockery around me, and my eye dwells on their obstinacy, insults, and resistance.

³ Give me a pledge with Yourself [acknowledge my innocence before my death]; who is there that will give security for me?

⁴ But their hearts [Lord] You have closed to understanding; therefore You will not let them triumph [by giving them a verdict against me].

⁵ He who denounces his friends [in order to make them] a prey and get a share, the eyes of his children shall fail [to find food].

⁶ But He has made me a byword among the people, and they spit before my face.

⁷ My eye has grown dim because of grief, and all my members are [wasted away] like a shadow.

⁸ Upright men shall be astonished and appalled at this, and the innocent shall stir himself up against the godless and polluted.

⁹ Yet shall the righteous (those upright and in right standing with God) hold to their ways, and he who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.^(D)

¹⁰ But as for you, come on again, all of you, though I find not a wise man among you.

¹¹ My days are past, my purposes and plans are frustrated; even the thoughts (desires and possessions) of my heart [are broken off].

¹² These [thoughts] extend from the night into the day, [so that] the light is short because of darkness.

¹³ But if I look to Sheol (the unseen state) as my abode, if I spread my couch in the darkness,

¹⁴ If I say to the grave and corruption, You are my father, and to the worm [that feeds on decay], You are my mother and my sister [because I will soon be closest to you],

¹⁵ Where then is my hope? And if I have hope, who will see [its fulfillment]?

¹⁶ [My hope] shall go down to the bars of Sheol (the unseen state) when once there is rest in the dust.

18 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

² How long will you lay snares for words and have to hunt for your argument? Do some clear thinking, and then we will reply.

³ Why are we counted as beasts [as if we had no sense]? Why are we unclean in your sight?

⁴ You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you, or the rock be removed out of its place?

⁵ Yes, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the flame of his fire shall not shine.^(E)

⁶ The light shall be dark in his dwelling, and his lamp beside him shall be put out.^(F)

⁷ The steps of his strength shall be shortened, and his own counsel and the plans in which he trusted shall bring about his downfall.

⁸ For the wicked is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walks upon a lattice-covered pit.

⁹ A trap will catch him by the heel, and a snare will lay hold on him.

¹⁰ A noose is hidden for him on the ground and a trap for him in the way.

¹¹ Terrors shall make him afraid on every side and shall chase him at his heels.

¹² The strength [of the wicked] shall be hunger-bitten, and calamity is ready at his side [if he halts].

¹³ By disease his strength and his skin shall be devoured; the firstborn of death [the worst of diseases] shall consume his limbs.

¹⁴ He shall be rooted out of his dwelling place in which he trusted, and he shall be brought to the king of terrors [death].

¹⁵ There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his [family]; sulphur shall be scattered over his dwelling [to purify it after his going].

¹⁶ The roots [of the wicked] shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off and wither.

¹⁷ His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.

¹⁸ He shall be thrust from light into darkness and driven out of the world.

¹⁹ He shall neither have son nor grandson among his people, nor any remaining where he sojourned.

²⁰ They [of the west] that come after [the wicked man] shall be astonished and appalled at his day, as they [of the east] that went before were seized with horror.

²¹ Surely such are the dwellings of the ungodly, and such is the place of him who knows not (recognizes not and honors not) God.

19 Then Job answered:

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

³ These ten times you have reproached me; you are not ashamed that you make yourselves strange [harden yourselves against me and deal severely with me].

⁴ And if it were true that I have erred, my error would remain with me [I would be conscious of it].

⁵ If indeed you magnify yourselves against me and plead against me my reproach and humiliation,

⁶ Know that God has overthrown and put me in the wrong and has closed His net about me.

⁷ Behold, I cry out, Violence! but I am not heard; I cry aloud for help, but there is no justice.

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

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

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

¹¹ He has also kindled His wrath against me, and He counts me as one of His adversaries.

¹² His troops come together and cast up their way and siege works against me and encamp round about my tent.

¹³ He has put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.

¹⁴ My kinsfolk have failed me, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.

¹⁵ Those who live temporarily in my house and my maids count me as a stranger; I am an alien in their sight.

¹⁶ I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer, though I beseech him with words.

¹⁷ I am repulsive to my wife and loathsome to the children of my own mother.

¹⁸ Even young children despise me; when I get up, they speak against me.

¹⁹ All the men of my council and my familiar friends abhor me; those whom I loved are turned against me.

²⁰ My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped with the skin or gums of my teeth.

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

²² Why do you, as if you were God, pursue and persecute me? [Acting like wild beasts] why are you not satisfied with my flesh?

²³ Oh, that the words I now speak were written! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book [carved on a tablet of stone]!

²⁴ That with an iron pen and [molten] lead they were graven in the rock forever!

²⁵ For I know that my Redeemer and Vindicator lives, and at last He [the Last One] will stand upon the earth.^(G)

²⁶ And after my skin, even this body, has been destroyed, then from my flesh or without it I shall see God,

²⁷ Whom I, even I, shall see for myself and on my side! And my eyes shall behold Him, and not as a stranger! My heart pines away and is consumed within me.

²⁸ If you say, How we will pursue him! [and continue to persecute me with the claim] that the root [cause] of all these [afflictions] is found in me,

²⁹ Then beware and be afraid of the sword [of divine vengeance], for wrathful are the punishments of that sword, that you may know there is a judgment.

20 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered,

² Therefore do my thoughts give me an answer, and I make haste [to offer it] for this reason.

³ I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame, but out of my understanding my spirit answers me.

⁴ Do you not know from of old, since the time that man was placed on the earth,

⁵ That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless and defiled is but for a moment?^(H)

⁶ Though his [proud] height mounts up to the heavens and his head reaches to the clouds,

⁷ Yet he will perish forever like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, Where is he?

⁸ He will fly away like a dream and will not be found; yes, he will be chased away as a vision of the night.

⁹ The eye which saw him will see him no more, neither will his [accustomed] place any more behold him.

¹⁰ The poor will oppress his children, and his hands will give back his [ill-gotten] wealth.

¹¹ His bones are full of youthful energy, but it will lie down with him in the dust.

¹² Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue,

¹³ Though he is loath to let it go but keeps it still within his mouth,

¹⁴ Yet his food turns [to poison] in his stomach; it is the venom of asps within him.

¹⁵ He has swallowed down [his ill-gotten] riches, and he shall vomit them up again; God will cast them out of his belly.

¹⁶ He shall suck the poison of asps [which ill-gotten wealth contains]; the viper’s tongue shall slay him.

¹⁷ He shall not look upon the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter [to enjoy his wealth].

¹⁸ That which he labored for shall he give back and shall not swallow it down [to enjoy it]; according to his wealth shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice in it.

¹⁹ For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor; he has violently taken away a house which he did not build.

²⁰ Because his desire and greed knew no quietness within him, he will not save anything of that in which he delights.

²¹ There was nothing left that he did not devour; therefore his prosperity will not endure.

²² In the fullness of his sufficiency [in the time of his great abundance] he shall be poor and in straits; every hand of everyone who is in misery shall come upon him [he is but a wretch on every side].

²³ When he is about to fill his belly [as in the wilderness when God sent the quails], God will cast the fierceness of His wrath upon him and will rain it upon him while he is eating.^(I)

²⁴ He will flee from the iron weapon, but the bow of bronze shall strike him through.

²⁵ [The arrow] is drawn forth and it comes out after passing through his body; yes, the glittering point comes out of his gall. Terrors march in upon him;

²⁶ Every misfortune is laid up for his treasures. A fire not blown by man shall devour him; it shall consume what is left in his tent [and it shall go ill with him who remains there].

²⁷ The heavens shall reveal his iniquity, and the earth shall rise up against him.

²⁸ The produce and increase of his house will go into exile [with the victors], dragged away in the day of [God’s] wrath.

²⁹ This is the wicked man’s portion from God, and the heritage appointed to him by God.