Job 19

Job replies to Bildad

19:1Now Job is angry with his friends because of the things that they have said. He thinks that God has gone away. He feels that he is alone. He is sad because his friends and his family see him as a stranger. But then Job says something that is very special (verses 25 to 27). He believes that God will save him. Even if he dies, God will make him alive again. He is sure that, some day, he will see God.

1 Then Job replied. This is what he said:

2 ‘Please stop speaking to me like that!

Your words continue to make me suffer.

3 You have insulted me many, many times.

You should be ashamed to attack me like that.

4 I might have done things that are wrong.

But even if that might be true,

those wrong things have not hurt you.

5 You think that you are better people than I am.

Because I have all these troubles,

you say that I must be guilty.

6 But you should realize that God has caused all my troubles.

He is the one who has caught me in his trap.

7 If I shout, “Help me, I am in trouble!”

nobody answers me.

I shout to get help,

but nobody comes to give me justice.

8 God has stopped me

so that I cannot move forward.

He has made my path dark

so that I cannot see the way to go.

9 He has taken away my honour

so that nobody respects me.

10 Everywhere that I go, God is there to attack me.

He is ready to destroy me.

He has taken away my hope,

as if he has dug a tree out of the ground.

11 He is very angry against me.

He attacks me as if I am his enemy.

12 His whole army is coming to attack me!

They build a road so that they can reach me.

They are all around me.

13 God has caused my brothers to stay away from me.

My friends do not want to meet me.

14 My relatives have left me.

My best friends have forgotten me.

15 Visitors who stayed in my house

now think that I am a stranger.

Even my servants think that I am a foreigner.

16 I tell my servant to come to me

but he does not come.

I ask him to help me,

but he does nothing.

17 My wife moves away from the smell of my breath.

My brothers stay away from me.

18 Even young children insult me.

When I stand up, they laugh at me.

19 My best friends hate me.

People that I love have turned against me.

20 My body is now only skin and bones.

I still breathe but I am only just alive.

21 Please be kind to me, my friends.

God has caused me to suffer,

so please be kind to me.

22 Do not punish me as God is punishing me.

You have already caused me to suffer enough.

23 Someone should write down the words that I speak.

My words should be written on a scroll.

24 If someone uses an iron tool to write them on a rock,

that would be good.

Then they would never disappear.

25 As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives.

19:25A ‘redeemer’ is someone who pays another person's debts. Job uses it here as a name for God. In the New Testament, we read that Jesus paid the price for all the wrong things that we have done.

I know that, in the end, he will stand on the earth.

26 Illness may completely destroy my skin.

But after that happens,

I know that in this body I will see God.

27 I will see him for myself,

with my own eyes.

It makes me feel weak inside as I think about it!

28 My friends, you should not think of ways to make me suffer even more.

You say that I have caused my own trouble.

29 Instead, you yourselves should be afraid of punishment!

When God is angry with someone,

he punishes that person.

Then you will know that he is the one who judges people.’