How Long Will You Torment Me?
Study note
Job asks his friends how long they will keep crushing him with words. He says they have insulted him ten times and show no shame. Even if he has made mistakes, those mistakes are his own concern, not theirs. Job insists that God has wronged him and trapped him in a net.
1 Then Job responded, Then Job answered and said,
2 'How much longer are you going to beat me down and crush me with your speeches?' How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?
3 'You have humiliated me over and over again -- ten times now! You are not even embarrassed about how badly you treat me.' These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.
4 'Even if I truly have made some mistakes, those mistakes are between me and God.' And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.
5 'If you are so set on making yourselves look better than me by pointing at my shame to prove your case,' If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:
6 'then let me tell you something: it is God who has done this to me. He is the one who threw his net over me.' Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.
God Has Stripped Me of Everything
Study note
Job cries out that he has been wronged, but no one hears him. God has blocked his path with darkness, stripped away his honor, torn him down on every side, and pulled up his hope like a tree. God treats him like an enemy, sending his forces to attack.
7 'I scream out, "This is not fair!" but nobody answers. I shout for help at the top of my lungs, but there is no justice anywhere.' Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.
8 'He has put up a wall across my path so I cannot get through. He has covered the road ahead of me in total darkness.' He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.
9 'He has ripped my reputation to shreds and knocked the crown right off my head.' He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.
10 'He attacks me from every angle until there is nothing left. He has uprooted my hope the way someone yanks a tree out of the ground.' He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.
11 'His anger is blazing against me. He considers me one of his enemies.' He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.
12 'His armies march toward me together. They build a road of attack straight to my tent and set up camp all around me.' His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.
Abandoned by Everyone
Study note
Job lists all the people who have turned away from him: his relatives, close friends, household servants, his wife, and even young children. Everyone he loved has turned against him. His skin hangs on his bones. He is barely alive. He pleads desperately for pity from his friends.
13 'He has pushed my family so far away that they feel like strangers. Every person I know has become a complete outsider.' He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.
14 'My own relatives have left me behind. My closest friends have forgotten I exist.' My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.
15 'The people staying in my house and even my own servants look at me like some kind of foreigner. I am a stranger in my own home.' They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.
16 'I call for my servant, and he completely ignores me, even when I beg him nicely.' I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I entreated him with my mouth.
17 'My own wife cannot stand the smell of my breath. My own family members are disgusted by me.' My breath is strange to my wife, though I entreated for the children's sake of mine own body.
18 'Even little children look down on me. When I try to get up, they laugh at me and make fun.' Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.
19 'Every one of my closest friends thinks I am repulsive. The people I loved most have turned their backs on me.' All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.
20 'I am nothing but skin stretched over bones. I have barely hung on by the skin of my teeth.' My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
21 'Please, my friends, have some pity! Have some compassion! The hand of God himself has struck me.' Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.
22 'Why do you come after me the same way God does? Have you not gotten enough of watching me suffer?' Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
I Know That My Redeemer Lives
Study note
From the lowest point of his suffering, Job makes one of the most extraordinary statements of faith in all of Scripture. He wishes his words could be carved in rock forever. Then he declares: 'I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.' Even after his body is destroyed, Job believes he will see God with his own eyes. This is a remarkable moment of hope in the midst of total despair.
23 'If only my words could be written down! If only they could be recorded in a book for all time!' Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!
24 'If only they could be chiseled into rock with an iron tool and filled in with lead so they would last forever!' That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!
25 "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he shall stand at the last day upon the earth." For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
26 'And even after my skin has been destroyed, even after all of this, I will see God with my own body.' And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
27 'I myself will look at him. My very own eyes will see him -- not somebody else's eyes, but mine. My whole heart aches with longing for that day!' Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.
28 'You ought to ask yourselves, "Why are we going after him like this?" The truth of the matter is found right here with me.' But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?
29 'You had better be afraid of the sword yourselves, because anger invites the punishment of the sword. Then you will learn that there truly is a judgment coming.' Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.