Ayub (Job) — 19

Ayub’s Sixth Speech: A Response to Bildad

1 Then Ayub spoke again:

2 “How long will you torture me? How long will you try to crush me with your words?

3 You have already insulted me ten times.    You should be ashamed of treating me so badly.

4 Even if I have sinned, that is my concern, not yours.

5 You think you are better than I am, using my humiliation as evidence of my sin.

6 But it is 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH who has wronged me, capturing me in His net.

7 “I cry out, ‘Help!’ but no one answers me. I protest, but there is no justice.

8 For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH has blocked my way so I cannot move. He has plunged my path into darkness.

9 He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head.

10 He has demolished me on every side, and I am finished. He has uprooted my hope like a fallen tree.

11 The anger of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH burns against me; He counts me as an enemy.

12 And the troops of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH  advance, they build up roads to attack me. They camp all around my tent.

13 “My relatives stay far away, and my friends have turned against me.

14 My family is gone, and my close friends have forgotten me.

15 My servants and maids consider me a stranger. I am like a foreigner to them.

16 When I call my servant, he does not respond to me; I have to plead with him!

17 My breath is repulsive to my wife. I am rejected by my own family.

18 Even young children despise me. When I stand to speak, they turn their backs on me.

19 My close friends detest me. Those I loved have turned against me.

20 I have been reduced to skin and bones    and have escaped death by the skin of my teeth.

21 “Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy, for the hand of my 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH has struck me.

22 Must you also persecute me, like 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH does? Have you not chewed me up enough?

23 “Oh, that my words could be recorded.    Oh, that they could be inscribed on a monument,

24 carved with an iron chisel and filled with lead, engraved forever in the rock.

25 “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the Arath at last.

26 And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see my 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH!

27 I will see Him for myself. Yes, I will see Him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought!

28 “How dare you go on persecuting me,    saying, ‘It’s his own fault’?

29 You should fear punishment yourselves, for your attitude deserves punishment. Then you will know that there is indeed a judgment.”