Job’s Second Speech: A Response to Eliphaz

¹ “Does not ⌞a human being¹ have hard service⌟² on earth? And are not his³ days like the days of a laborer?

1. Or a collective singular, “human beings”
2. Literally “hard service for a human being”
3. Or a collective singular, “their”

² Like a slave he longs for the shadow, and like a laborer he waits for his wages.

³ So ⌞I had to inherit⌟¹ months of worthlessness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me.

1. Literally “I am allotted to me”

⁴ When I lie down, I say,¹ ‘When shall I rise?’ But² the night is long, and I have my fill of tossing until dawn.

1. Hebrew “and I say”
2. Hebrew “And”

⁵ My body is clothed with maggots and clods of dust; my skin hardens, then¹ it gives way again.

1. Hebrew “and”

⁶ “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end ⌞without hope⌟.¹

1. Literally “with nothing hope”

⁷ Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will not return to see good.

⁸ The eye of the one seeing me will not see me; your eyes are upon me, but¹ ⌞I will be gone⌟.²

1. Hebrew “and”
2. Literally “there is not me,” or “I am not”

⁹ A cloud vanishes, and it goes away, so he who goes down to Sheol will not come up.

¹⁰ He does not return again to his house, and his place does not recognize him again.

¹¹ “Even¹ I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in my spirit’s anguish; I will complain in my inner self’s² bitterness.

1. Or “I on my part”
2. Or “soul’s”

¹² Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that you set a guard over me?

¹³ When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me, and my couch¹ will ease my complaint,’

1. Or “bed”

¹⁴ then¹ you terrify me with dreams,² and with visions you terrify³ me.

1. Hebrew “and”
2. Or “the dreams”
3. Or “dishearten,” or “frighten”

¹⁵ So¹ my inner self² will choose³ strangling— death more than my ⌞existence⌟.⁴

1. Or “And”
2. Or “soul”
3. Or “I will choose”
4. Literally “bones”

¹⁶ I loathe my life; I would not live forever; depart from me, for my days are a breath.

¹⁷ “What is a human being that you make him great and that ⌞you fix your mind on him⌟,¹

1. Literally “you set on him your heart”

¹⁸ so that¹ you visit him ⌞every morning⌟,² you test him ⌞every moment⌟?³

1. Hebrew “and”
2. Literally “for mornings,” or “at mornings”
3. Literally “for moments,” or “at moments”

¹⁹ ⌞How long⌟¹ will you not turn away from me? Or not leave me alone until I swallow² my spit?

1. Literally “Like what”
2. Or “my swallowing”

²⁰ If I have sinned, what have I done to you, watcher of humanity? Why have you made me as a target for yourself, so that¹ I have become a burden to myself?²

1. Hebrew “and”
2. Some translations translate as “you” (e.g., ESV, NRSV, NIV, NET)

²¹ And why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my guilt? For now I shall lie in the dust, and you will seek me, but¹ ⌞I will be no more⌟.”²

1. Hebrew “and”
2. Literally “there is not me,” or “I am not”