Job 19
1 Then Job answered:
And Job made answer and said,
2 “How long will you torment me and crush me with your words?
How long will you make my life bitter, crushing me with words?
3 Ten times now you have reproached me; you shamelessly mistreat me.
Ten times now you have made sport of me; it gives you no sense of shame to do me wrong.
4 Even if I have truly gone astray, my error concerns me alone.
And, truly, if I have been in error, the effect of my error is only on myself.
5 If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my disgrace against me,
If you make yourselves great against me, using my punishment as an argument against me,
6 then understand that it is God who has wronged me and drawn His net around me.
Be certain that it is God who has done me wrong, and has taken me in his net.
7 Though I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice.
Truly, I make an outcry against the violent man, but there is no answer: I give a cry for help, but no one takes up my cause.
8 He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; He has veiled my paths with darkness.
My way is walled up by him so that I may not go by: he has made my roads dark.
9 He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head.
He has put off my glory from me, and 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.
I am broken down by him on every side, and I am gone; my hope is uprooted like a tree.
11 His anger burns against me, and He counts me among His enemies.
His wrath is burning against me, and I am to him as one of his haters.
12 His troops advance together; they construct a ramp against me and encamp around my tent.
His armies come on together, they make their road high against me, and put up their tents round mine.
13 He has removed my brothers from me; my acquaintances have abandoned me.
He has taken my brothers far away from me; they have seen my fate and have become strange to me.
14 My kinsmen have failed me, and my friends have forgotten me.
My relations and my near friends have given me up, and those living in my house have put me out of their minds.
15 My guests and maidservants count me as a stranger; I am a foreigner in their sight.
I am strange to my women-servants, and seem to them as one from another country.
16 I call for my servant, but he does not answer, though I implore him with my own mouth.
At my cry my servant gives me no answer, and I have to make a prayer to him.
17 My breath is repulsive to my wife, and I am loathsome to my own family.
My breath is strange to my wife, and I am disgusting to the offspring of my mother's body.
18 Even little boys scorn me; when I appear, they deride me.
Even young children have no respect for me; when I get up their backs are turned on me.
19 All my best friends despise me, and those I love have turned against me.
All the men of my circle keep away from me; and those dear to me are turned against me.
20 My skin and flesh cling to my bones; I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
My bones are joined to my skin, and I have got away with my flesh in my teeth.
21 Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.
Have pity on me, have pity on me, O my friends! for the hand of God is on me.
22 Why do you persecute me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh?
Why are you cruel to me, like God, for ever saying evil against me?
23 I wish that my words were recorded and inscribed in a book,
If only my words might be recorded! if they might be put in writing in a book!
24 by an iron stylus on lead, or chiseled in stone forever.
And with an iron pen and lead be cut into the rock for ever!
25 But I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth.
But I am certain that he who will take up my cause is living, and that in time to come he will take his place on the dust;
26 Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.
And ... without my flesh I will see God;
27 I will see Him for myself; my eyes will behold Him, and not as a stranger. How my heart yearns within me!
Whom I will see on my side, and not as one strange to me. My heart is broken with desire.
28 If you say, ‘Let us persecute him, since the root of the matter lies with him,’
If you say, How cruel we will be to him! because the root of sin is clearly 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.”
Be in fear of the sword, for the sword is the punishment for such things, so that you may be certain that there is a judge.
