Job 19
1 Then Job answered and said,
Then Job answered and said,
2 “How long will you make me suffer and break me into pieces 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 have reproached me; you are not ashamed that you have treated me harshly.
Ye speak against me; ye do not feel for me, but bear hard upon me.
4 If it is indeed true that I have erred, my error remains my own concern.
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 will exalt yourselves above me and use my humiliation against me,
But alas! for ye magnify yourselves against me, and insult me with reproach.
6 then you should know that God has done wrong to me and has caught me in his net.
Know then that it is the Lord that has troubled [me], and has raised his bulwark against me.
7 See, I cry out, “Violence!” but I get no answer. I call out for help, but 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 walled up my way so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness in my path.
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 glory, and he has taken the crown from my head.
And he has stripped me of my glory, and has taken the crown from my head.
10 He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone; he has pulled up 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 He has also kindled his wrath against me; he regards me as one of his adversaries.
And he has dreadfully handled me in anger, and has counted me for an enemy.
12 His troops come on together; they cast up siege mounds 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 from me; my acquaintances are wholly alienated from me.
My brethren have stood aloof from me; they have recognized strangers [rather] than me: and my friends have become pitiless.
14 My kinsfolk have failed me; my close friends have forgotten me.
My nearest of kin have not acknowledged me, and they that knew my name, have forgotten me.
15 Those who once stayed as guests in my house and my female servants regard me as a stranger; I am an alien in their sight.
[As for] my household, and my maid-servants, I was a stranger before them.
16 I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer although I entreat him with my mouth.
I called my servant, and he hearkened not; and my mouth intreated [him].
17 My breath is offensive to my wife; I am even disgusting to those who were born from my mother's womb.
And I besought my wife, and earnestly intreated the sons of my concubines.
18 Even young children despise me; if I rise to speak, they speak against me.
But they rejected me for ever; whenever I rise up, they speak against me.
19 All my familiar friends abhor me; those whom 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 bones cling to my skin and to my flesh; I survive only by the skin of my teeth.
My flesh is corrupt under my skin, and my bones are held in [my] teeth.
21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, my friends, for the hand of God has touched 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 like God does? Will you ever be satisfied with my flesh?
Wherefore do ye persecute me as also the Lord [does], and are not satisfied with my flesh?
23 Oh, that my words were now written down! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book!
For oh that my words were written, and that they were recorded in a book forever,
24 Oh, that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!
with an iron pen and lead, or graven in the rocks!
25 But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at last he will stand on the earth;
For I know that he is eternal who is about to deliver me,
26 after my skin, that is, this body, is destroyed, then 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 with my own eyes—I, and not someone else. My heart fails 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, 'How we will persecute him! The root of his troubles lies in 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 be afraid of the sword, because wrath brings the punishment of 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.
