Job Replies: My Redeemer Lives
1 Then Job answered and said:
2 “How long will you torment me
and break me in pieces with words?
3 These mten times you have cast reproach upon me;
are you not ashamed to wrong me?
4 And even if it be true that I have erred,
my error remains with myself.
5 If indeed you magnify yourselves against me
and make my disgrace an argument against me,
6 know then that God has nput me in the wrong
and closed his net about me.
7 Behold, I cry out, o‘Violence!’ but I am not answered;
I call for help, but there is no justice.
8 He has pwalled up my way, so that I cannot pass,
and he has set darkness upon my paths.
9 He has stripped from me my glory
and taken the crown from my head.
10 He breaks me down on every side, and I am qgone,
and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.
11 He has kindled his wrath against me
and rcounts me as his adversary.
12 sHis troops come on together;
they have cast up their siege ramp1 against me
and encamp around my tent.
13 t“He has put my brothers far from me,
and uthose who knew me are wholly estranged from me.
14 My relatives have failed me,
my close friends have forgotten me.
15 The guests in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger;
I have become a foreigner in their eyes.
16 I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;
I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.
17 My breath is strange to my wife,
and I am a stench to the children of my own mother.
18 Even young children despise me;
when I rise they talk against me.
19 All my intimate friends abhor me,
and those whom I loved have turned against me.
20 vMy bones stick to my skin and to my flesh,
and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
21 Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends,
for the hand of God has wtouched me!
22 Why do you, like God, pursue me?
Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?
23 x“Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
24 Oh that with an yiron pen and lead
they were engraved in the rock forever!
25 For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.2
26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in3 my flesh I shall zsee God,
27 whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me!
28 If you say, ‘How we will pursue him!’
and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’4
29 be afraid of the sword,
for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
that you may know there is a judgment.”
Born Again to a Living Hope
3 fBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be gborn again to a living hhope ithrough the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an jinheritance that is kimperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation lready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you mrejoice, though now nfor a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the otested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the prevelation of Jesus Christ. 8 qThough you have not seen him, you love him. rThough you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours ssearched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time1 the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he tpredicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent uglories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things vthat have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you wby the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, xthings into which angels long to look.
Called to Be Holy
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action,2 and being ysober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, zdo not be conformed to the apassions of your bformer ignorance, 15 but as he who ccalled you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, d“You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges eimpartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your fexile, 18 knowing that you were gransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, hnot with perishable things such as isilver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a jlamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was kmade manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 lwho through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him mglory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a nsincere brotherly love, olove one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of pimperishable, qthrough the rliving and abiding word of God; 24 for
s“All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.”
And this word is tthe good news that was preached to you.
