Job’s Sixth Speech: A Response to Bildad

¹  Then¹ Job answered and said,

1. Hebrew “And”

² “⌞How long⌟¹ will you² torment me³ and crush me with words?

1. Literally “Until when”
2. Plural
3. Hebrew “my soul,” or “my self”

³ These ten times you¹ have disgraced me; you² are not ashamed that you³ have attacked⁴ me.

1. Plural
2. Plural
3. Plural
4. Or “astonished”

⁴ And what is more, if I have truly erred, my error remains with me.

⁵ If indeed you¹ must magnify yourselves against me, and you² must let my disgrace argue against me,

1. Plural
2. Plural

⁶ know then that God has wronged me and has surrounded me with his net.

⁷ “Look, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but¹ I am not answered; I cry out, but² there is no justice.

1. Or “and”
2. Hebrew “and”

⁸ He has walled up my way so that¹ I cannot pass; and he has set darkness upon my paths.

1. Hebrew “and”

⁹ He has taken my glory from me, and he has removed the crown of¹ my head.

1. Or “from”

¹⁰ He has broken me down all around, and I am gone. And he has uprooted my hope like a tree,

¹¹ and he has kindled his wrath against me, and ⌞he has counted me as one of his foes⌟.¹

1. Literally “he has counted me for him as his foes”

¹² His troops have come together and have thrown up their rampart¹ against me and have encamped around my tent.

1. Or “siege works”; compare NRSV

¹³ “He has removed my kinsfolk from me, and my acquaintances have only¹ turned aside from me.

1. Or “completely”

¹⁴ My relatives have failed, and my close friends have forgotten me.

¹⁵ The sojourners in¹ my house and my slave women count me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their eyes.

1. Or “of”

¹⁶ I call to my servant, but¹ he does not answer; I must ⌞personally⌟² plead with him.

1. Hebrew “and”
2. Literally “with my mouth”

¹⁷ My breath is repulsive to my wife, and I am loathsome to ⌞my own family⌟.¹

1. Literally “to the children of my womb”

¹⁸ Little boys also despise me; when I rise, then¹ they talk against me.

1. Hebrew “and”

¹⁹ All ⌞my intimate friends⌟¹ abhor me, and these whom I have loved have turned against me.

1. Literally “the men of the circle of my confidants”

²⁰ My bones¹ cling to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

1. Collective singular

²¹ “Pity me, pity me, you my friends, for God’s hand has touched me.

²² Why do you¹ pursue me like God? And are not satisfied with my flesh?

1. Plural

²³ “⌞O that⌟¹ my words could be written down! ⌞O that they could be inscribed in a scroll⌟!²

1. Literally “Who then shall give and”
2. Literally “Who shall give in the scroll and they could be inscribed”

²⁴ That with a pen of iron and with lead they might be engraved on a rock forever!

²⁵ But¹ I myself² know that my redeemer is alive, and at the last he will stand up upon ⌞the earth⌟.³

1. Hebrew “And”
2. Emphatic personal pronoun
3. Literally “dust”

²⁶ And after my skin has been thus destroyed, but¹ from² my flesh I will see God,

1. Hebrew “and”
2. Or “without”

²⁷ whom ⌞I will see for myself⌟,¹ and whom my eyes will see and not a stranger.² ⌞My heart faints within me⌟.³

1. Literally “I myself will see for myself”; emphatic personal pronoun as subject to the singular verb
2. Or “another”
3. Literally “My kidneys fail in my lap”; see NRSV

²⁸ “If you¹ say, ‘How will we persecute him?’ And ‘The root of the trouble is found’ in me,²

1. Plural
2. Or “ ‘The root of the trouble is found’ in him”

²⁹ be afraid for yourselves ⌞because of the sword⌟,¹ for wrath brings punishment by² the sword, so that you may know that there is judgment.”

1. Literally “from the faces of the sword”
2. Literally “of”