1 Then Job answered and said,
2 How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?
3 These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.
4 And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.
5 If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:
6 Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.
7 Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.
8 He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.
9 He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.
10 He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.
11 He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.
12 His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.
13 He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.
14 My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.
15 They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.
16 I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.
17 My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's sake of mine own body.
18 Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.
19 All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.
20 My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.
22 Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
23 Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!
24 That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!
25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.
28 But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?
29 Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.
<html><b>Job’s Reply</b><br><b>will you grieve</b> Heb. תגיון,an expression of grief (תוגה).</html>
<html><b>ten times</b> There are ten chapters until here.</html>
<html><b>stay with me</b> I am the one who receives blows for my error.</html>
<html><b>If indeed</b> you are added upon me to my trouble. <b>and prove against me my reproach</b> You show and prove my reproach to my face.</html>
<html><b>I cry out</b> concerning <b>violence</b> but I am not answered.</html>
<html><b>he has uprooted</b> Heb. ויסע, an expression of uprooting.</html>
<html><b>they build their road</b> Heb. ויסלו, an expression of a highway (מסלה).</html>
<html><b>became strange</b> Heb. אך זרו, an expression of cruelty.</html>
<html><b>to the children of my body</b> To those who I raised in my house as though they were my own children.</html>
<html><b>children despised me</b> I was despised in the eyes of children, all the more so in the eyes of princes.</html>
<html><b>My bones cleaved</b> because I am emaciated from thickness of flesh. <b>by the skin of my teeth</b> All his flesh was afflicted with boils and worms except his gums.</html>
<html><b>With an iron pen</b> they should be inscribed in the rock, and afterwards they run lead over them to give the letters a black appearance, to make them recognizable. This is the practice of those who inscribe on stone. It cannot be explained to mean a lead pen because lead is soft in comparison with stone.</html>
<html><b>But I know that my Redeemer lives</b> This “vav” refers to the above. You persecute me, but I know that my Redeemer lives to requite you, and He will endure and rise. <b>and the last on the earth, He will endure</b> After all earth dwellers will perish, He will endure last.</html>
<html><b>And after my skin, they have cut into this</b> Yet they do not pay heed to my Redeemer, but after the plague of my skin, they cut, strike, and pierce. This vexation and persecution that I mentioned, which is to me like one cutting into my skin, like (Isa. 10:34): “And the thickets of the forests shall be cut off (ונקף).” <b>and from my flesh</b> I see judgments. <b>judgment</b> Heb. אלוה, an expression of judgment and chastisements.</html>
<html><b>Shall you say, ‘Why should we persecute him?’</b> Like (Deut. 7:17), “Will you say in your heart,” in which [כי] is an expression of a question. That is to say, “Will you lay your heart to the matter to have pity and say, ‘Why should we persecute him?’” <b>and the root of the matter</b> that is found in him—what is it? This favor will never enter your mind [to determine] the root of the matter for which he suffers with pains.</html>
<html><b>for the wrath</b> For you are committing much iniquity that will bring about the sword. <b>in order that you know</b> and understand the secret of the retribution that will come upon the wicked. Also, the mesorah is authoritative and שדין is written, as though it would say that there is justice (שיש דין) in the world, like (Jud. 5:7), “I, Deborah, arose (שַׁקַמְתִּי), [like שֶׁקַמְתִּי].” I saw this in Tanchuma (Mishpatim 3)</html>