How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?
Parallel translations
- WEB “How long will you torment me, and crush me with words?
- BSB “How long will you torment me and crush me with your words?
- NKJV “How long will you torment my soul, And break me in pieces with words?
- NASB “How long will you torment me And crush me with words?
- NLT “How long will you torture me? How long will you try to crush me with your words?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Job asks how long his friends will torment him and crush him with their words. He feels battered not by comfort but by accusation.
Overview
Job protests that the men who came to console him have instead become instruments of pain, breaking his spirit with relentless speeches. His cry exposes how careless or condemning words can deepen a sufferer's wounds. The verse calls believers to the better way of bearing one another's burdens and speaking words that build up rather than crush (Galatians 6:2).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Ps 6:2–3Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed.
- 2 Pet 2:7–8And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
- Ps 55:21The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.
- Rev 6:10And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
- Ps 64:3Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:
- Ps 59:7Behold, they belch out with their mouth: swords are in their lips: for who, say they, doth hear?
- Prov 18:21Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
- Job 8:2How long wilt thou speak these things? and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?
- Job 27:2As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;
- Ps 42:10As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?
- Jas 3:6–8And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
- Judg 16:16And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death;
- Job 18:2How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? mark, and afterwards we will speak.
- Prov 12:18There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.
- Ps 13:1How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 19:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.