Job 19

1 And Job answers and says:

Then Job answered and said,

2 “Until when do you afflict my soul, And bruise me with words?

How long will ye vex my soul, and destroy me with words? only know that the Lord has dealt with me thus.

3 These ten times you put me to shame, you do not blush. You make yourselves strange to me—

Ye speak against me; ye do not feel for me, but bear hard upon me.

4 And also—truly, I have erred, My error remains with me.

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, truly, you magnify yourselves over me, And decide my reproach against me;

But alas! for ye magnify yourselves against me, and insult me with reproach.

6 Know now, that God turned me upside down, And has set around His net against me,

Know then that it is the Lord that has troubled [me], and has raised his bulwark against me.

7 Behold, I cry out—violence, and am not answered, I cry aloud, and there is no judgment.

Behold, I laugh at reproach; I will not speak: [or] I will cry out, but [there is] nowhere judgment.

8 He hedged up my way, and I do not pass over, And He places darkness on my paths.

I am fenced round about, and can by no means escape: he has set darkness before my face.

9 He has stripped my honor from off me, And He turns the crown from my head.

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

10 He breaks me down all around, and I go, And removes 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 And He kindles His anger against me, And reckons me to Him as His adversaries.

And he has dreadfully handled me in anger, and has counted me for an enemy.

12 His troops come in together, And they raise up their way 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 put my brothers far off from me, And my acquaintances have surely been estranged from me.

My brethren have stood aloof from me; they have recognized strangers [rather] than me: and my friends have become pitiless.

14 My neighbors have ceased And my familiar friends have forgotten me,

My nearest of kin have not acknowledged me, and they that knew my name, have forgotten me.

15 Sojourners of my house and my maids, Reckon me for a stranger; I have been an alien in their eyes.

[As for] my household, and my maid-servants, I was a stranger before them.

16 I have called to my servant, And he does not answer, With my mouth I make supplication to him.

I called my servant, and he hearkened not; and my mouth intreated [him].

17 My spirit is strange to my wife, And my favors to the sons of my [mother’s] womb.

And I besought my wife, and earnestly intreated the sons of my concubines.

18 Also sucklings have despised me, I rise, and they speak against me.

But they rejected me for ever; whenever I rise up, they speak against me.

19 All the men of my counsel detest me, And those I have loved, Have been turned against me.

They that saw me abhorred me: the very persons whom I had loved, rose up against me.

20 To my skin and to my flesh My bone has cleaved, And I deliver myself with the skin of my teeth.

My flesh is corrupt under my skin, and my bones are held in [my] teeth.

21 Pity me, pity me, you my friends, For the hand of God has struck against me.

Pity me, pity me, O friends; for it is the hand of the Lord that has touched me.

22 Why do you pursue me as God? And are not satisfied with my flesh?

Wherefore do ye persecute me as also the Lord [does], and are not satisfied with my flesh?

23 Who grants now, that my words may be written? Who grants that they may be inscribed in a scroll?

For oh that my words were written, and that they were recorded in a book forever,

24 With a pen of iron and lead—They may be hewn in a rock forever.

with an iron pen and lead, or graven in the rocks!

25 That—I have known my Redeemer, The Living and the Last, For He raises the dust.

For I know that he is eternal who is about to deliver me,

26 And after my skin has surrounded this [body], Then from my flesh I 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 Whom I see on my side, And my eyes have beheld, and not a stranger, My reins have been consumed in my bosom.

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 But you say, Why do we pursue after him? And the root of the matter has been found in me.

But if ye shall also say, What shall we say before him, and [so] find the root of the matter in him?

29 Be afraid because of the sword, For the punishments of the sword [are] furious, That you may know that [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.