Job 19
1 Then Job answered:
Then Job answered and said,
2 “How long will you torment me and crush me with your words?
How long will ye vex my soul, and destroy me with words? only know that the Lord has dealt with me thus.
3 Ten times now you have reproached me; you shamelessly mistreat me.
Ye speak against me; ye do not feel for me, but bear hard upon me.
4 Even if I have truly gone astray, my error concerns me alone.
Yea verily, I have erred in truth, (but the error abides with myself) in having spoken words which it was not right [to speak]; and my words err, and are unreasonable.
5 If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my disgrace against me,
But alas! for ye magnify yourselves against me, and insult me with reproach.
6 then understand that it is God who has wronged me and drawn His net around me.
Know then that it is the Lord that has troubled [me], and has raised his bulwark against me.
7 Though I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice.
Behold, I laugh at reproach; I will not speak: [or] I will cry out, but [there is] nowhere judgment.
8 He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; He has veiled my paths with darkness.
I am fenced round about, and can by no means escape: he has set darkness before my face.
9 He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head.
And he has stripped me of my glory, and has taken the crown from my head.
10 He tears me down on every side until I am gone; He uproots my hope like a tree.
He has torn me around about, and I am gone: and he has cut off my hope like a tree.
11 His anger burns against me, and He counts me among His enemies.
And he has dreadfully handled me in anger, and has counted me for an enemy.
12 His troops advance together; they construct a ramp against me and encamp around my tent.
His troops also came upon me with one accord, liars in wait compassed my ways.
13 He has removed my brothers from me; my acquaintances have abandoned me.
My brethren have stood aloof from me; they have recognized strangers [rather] than me: and my friends have become pitiless.
14 My kinsmen have failed me, and my friends have forgotten me.
My nearest of kin have not acknowledged me, and they that knew my name, have forgotten me.
15 My guests and maidservants count me as a stranger; I am a foreigner in their sight.
[As for] my household, and my maid-servants, I was a stranger before them.
16 I call for my servant, but he does not answer, though I implore him with my own mouth.
I called my servant, and he hearkened not; and my mouth intreated [him].
17 My breath is repulsive to my wife, and I am loathsome to my own family.
And I besought my wife, and earnestly intreated the sons of my concubines.
18 Even little boys scorn me; when I appear, they deride me.
But they rejected me for ever; whenever I rise up, they speak against me.
19 All my best friends despise me, and those I love have turned against me.
They that saw me abhorred me: the very persons whom I had loved, rose up against me.
20 My skin and flesh cling to my bones; I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
My flesh is corrupt under my skin, and my bones are held in [my] teeth.
21 Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.
Pity me, pity me, O friends; for it is the hand of the Lord that has touched me.
22 Why do you persecute me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh?
Wherefore do ye persecute me as also the Lord [does], and are not satisfied with my flesh?
23 I wish that my words were recorded and inscribed in a book,
For oh that my words were written, and that they were recorded in a book forever,
24 by an iron stylus on lead, or chiseled in stone forever.
with an iron pen and lead, or graven in the rocks!
25 But I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth.
For I know that he is eternal who is about to deliver me,
26 Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.
[and] to raise up upon the earth my skin that endures these [sufferings]: for these things have been accomplished to me of the Lord;
27 I will see Him for myself; my eyes will behold Him, and not as a stranger. How my heart yearns within me!
which I am conscious of in myself, which mine eye has seen, and not another, but all have been fulfilled to me in [my] bosom.
28 If you say, ‘Let us persecute him, since the root of the matter lies with him,’
But if ye shall also say, What shall we say before him, and [so] find the root of the matter in him?
29 then you should fear the sword yourselves, because wrath brings punishment by the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment.”
Do ye also beware of deceit: for wrath will come upon transgressors; and then shall they know where their substance is.
