Job 19

1 Then Job answered,

Then Job answered and said,

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

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

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

You speak against me; you do not feel for me, but bear hard upon me.

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

Yes 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 magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach,

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

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

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

7 “Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard. I cry 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 judgement.

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

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 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 plucked my hope up 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 counts me among his adversaries.

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

12 His troops come on together, build a siege 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 put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.

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

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

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

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

[As for] my household, and my maidservants, I was a stranger before them.

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

I called my servant, and he listened not; and my mouth entreated [him].

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

And I implored my wife, and earnestly entreated the sons of my concubines.

18 Even young children despise me. If I arise, 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. They whom I loved have turned against me.

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

20 My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. 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. Have pity on me, you 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 persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

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

23 “Oh that my words were now written! 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 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. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.

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

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

[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, even I, will see on my side. My eyes will see, and not as a stranger. “My heart is consumed 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!’ because the root of the matter is found in me,

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

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

Do you also beware of deceit: for wrath will come upon transgressors; and then shall they know where their substance is.