Job replied again

1Then Job replied,:

2“How long will you three torment me and crush my spirit by saying to me that I am wicked?

3You have already insulted me many [HYP] times; ◄are you not ashamed for saying these things to me?/you should be ashamed for saying these things to me.► [RHQ]

4Even if it were true that I have done things that are wrong, I have not injured you!

5If you truly think that you are better than I am, and you think that my being miserable now proves that I ◄am guilty/have committed many sins►,

6you need to realize that it is God who has caused me to suffer. It is as though he has trapped me with his net.

7“I cry out, ‘Help me!’, but no one answers me. I call out loudly, but there is no one, not even God, who acts fairly toward me.

8It is as though [MET] God has blocked my way, with the result that I cannot go where I want to;
it is as though he has forced me to try to find my way in the darkness.

9He has ◄taken away my good reputation/caused people not to honor me any more►; it is as though he removed [MET] a crown from my head.

10He batters me from every side, and I will soon die. He has caused me to no longer confidently expect him to do good things for me.

11He attacks me because he is extremely angry with me [MET], and he considers that I am his enemy.

12It is as though he sends his army to attack me; they surround my tent,
preparing to attack me.

13“God has caused my brothers to abandon me, and all those who know me act like strangers to me.

14All my relatives and good friends have left me.

15The people who were guests in my house have forgotten me, and my female servants consider that I am a stranger or that I am a foreigner.

16When I summon my servants, they do not answer; I plead with them to come to help me, but they do not come.

17My wife does not want to come close to me because my breath smells very bad, and even my brothers detest me.

18Even young children despise me; when I stand up to talk to them, they laugh at me.

19My dearest friends detest me, and those whom I love very much have turned against me.

20My body is only skin and bones; I am barely alive [IDM].

21“I plead with you, my three friends, pity me, because God has ◄struck [EUP] me with his hand/caused me to suffer greatly►.

22Why do you cause me to suffer like God does? Why do you continue to slander [MET] me?

23“I wish/desire that someone would take these words of mine and write them permanently in a book in order that people can read them.

24Or else, I wish that he would carve them on a rock with ◄a chisel/an iron tool► in order that they would last forever.

25But I know that the one who vindicates/defends me in court is alive, and that some day he will stand here on the earth and make the final decision about whether I deserve to be punished.

26And even after diseases have eaten away my skin, while I still have my body, I will see God.

27I will see him myself; I will see him with my own eyes!
I am overwhelmed as I think about that!

28“If you three men say, ‘What more can we do to cause Job to suffer?’ and if you say, ‘He has caused his own troubles,’

29you should be afraid that God will punish [MTY] you;
he punishes those like you with whom he is angry; and when that happens, you will know that there is someone who judges people.”