Job 19

1 But Job answered by saying:

Then Job answered,

2 How long will you afflict my soul and wear me down with words?

“How long will you torment me, and crush me with words?

3 So, ten times you confound me and are not ashamed to oppress me.

You have reproached me ten times. You aren’t ashamed that you attack me.

4 Now, of course, if I have been ignorant, my ignorance will be with me.

If it is true that I have erred, my error remains with myself.

5 But you have risen up against me, and you accuse me to my disgrace.

If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach,

6 At least now you should understand that God has not afflicted me with a balanced judgment, though he has encompassed me with his scourges.

know now that God has subverted me, and has surrounded me with his net.

7 Behold, I will cry out, enduring violence, and no one will hear. I will announce loudly, but there is no one who may judge.

“Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard. I cry for help, but there is no justice.

8 He has hemmed in my path, and I cannot pass; he has added darkness to my difficult path.

He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and has set darkness in my paths.

9 He has plundered me of my glory, and he has stolen the crown from my head.

He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.

10 He has destroyed me on every side, and I am lost, and, like an uprooted tree, he has taken away my hope.

He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. He has plucked my hope up like a tree.

11 His fury has raged against me, and in this way he has treated me like his enemy.

He has also kindled his wrath against me. He counts me among his adversaries.

12 His troops have gathered together, and they have made their way to me, and they have besieged my tabernacle all around.

His troops come on together, build a siege ramp against me, and encamp around my tent.

13 He has put my brothers far from me, and my friends have withdrawn from me like strangers.

“He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.

14 My kinsmen have forsaken me, and those who knew me, have forgotten me.

My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me.

15 The inhabitants of my house and my maidservants treat me just as if I were a stranger, and I have been like a sojourner in their eyes.

Those who dwell in my house and my maids consider me a stranger. I am an alien in their sight.

16 I called my servant, and he did not respond; I pleaded with him with my own mouth.

I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer. I beg him with my mouth.

17 My wife has shuddered at my breath, and I have begged the sons of my loins.

My breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.

18 Even the foolish have looked down on me, and, when I withdrew from them, they spoke ill of me.

Even young children despise me. If I arise, they speak against me.

19 Those who were sometimes my counselors, treat me like an abomination; and he whom I valued the most has turned against me.

All my familiar friends abhor me. They whom I loved have turned against me.

20 Since my flesh has been consumed, my bone adheres to my skin, and only my lips have been left around my teeth.

My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

21 Have mercy on me, have compassion on me, at least you my friends, because the hand of the Lord has touched me.

“Have pity on me. Have pity on me, you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me.

22 Why do you pursue me just as God does, and satiate yourselves with my flesh?

Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

23 Who will grant to me that my words may be written down? Who will grant to me that they may be inscribed in a book,

“Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

24 with an iron pen and a plate of lead, or else be carved in stone?

That with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!

25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and on the last day I will rise out of the earth.

But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.

26 And I will be enveloped again with my skin, and in my flesh I will see my God.

After my skin is destroyed, then I will see God in my flesh,

27 It is he whom I myself will see, and he whom my eyes will behold, and no other. This, my hope, has taken rest in my bosom.

whom I, even I, will see on my side. My eyes will see, and not as a stranger. “My heart is consumed within me.

28 Why then do you now say: “Let us pursue him, and let us find a basis to speak against him?”

If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’ because the root of the matter is found in me,

29 So then, flee from the face of the sword, for the sword is the avenger of iniquities; but know this: there is to be a judgment.

be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.”