Job 19
1 Then Job answered:
Then responded Job, and said: —
2 “How long will you torment me and crush me with your words?
How long will ye grieve my soul? or crush me with words?
3 Ten times now you have reproached me; you shamelessly mistreat me.
These ten times, have ye reviled me, Shameless ye wrong me.
4 Even if I have truly gone astray, my error concerns me alone.
And even if indeed I have erred, with myself lodgeth mine error.
5 If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my disgrace against me,
If indeed, against me, ye must needs magnify yourselves, and plead, against me, my reproach.
6 then understand that it is God who has wronged me and drawn His net around me.
Know, then, that, God, hath overthrown me, and, within his net, enclosed me.
7 Though I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice.
Lo! I cry—out: Violence! but receive no answer, I cry aloud, but there is no vindication;
8 He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; He has veiled my paths with darkness.
My way, hath he walled up, that I cannot pass, and, upon my paths, hath he made darkness rest;
9 He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head.
My glory—from off me, hath he stripped, and hath removed the crown of my head;
10 He tears me down on every side until I am gone; He uproots my hope like a tree.
He hath ruined me on every side, and I am gone, and he hath taken away—like a tree—my hope;
11 His anger burns against me, and He counts me among His enemies.
Yea he hath kindled against me his anger, and accounted me towards him like unto his adversaries;
12 His troops advance together; they construct a ramp against me and encamp around my tent.
Together, enter his troops and have cast up, against me, their mound, and have encamped all around my tent;
13 He has removed my brothers from me; my acquaintances have abandoned me.
My Brethren—from beside me, hath he moved far away, and, mine acquaintance, are wholly estranged from me;
14 My kinsmen have failed me, and my friends have forgotten me.
Failed me, have my near of kin, and, mine intimate acquaintances, have forgotten me;
15 My guests and maidservants count me as a stranger; I am a foreigner in their sight.
Ye guests of my house and my maidens, A stranger, have ye accounted me, An alien, have I become in their eyes;
16 I call for my servant, but he does not answer, though I implore him with my own mouth.
To mine own servant, I called, and he would not answer, With mine own mouth, I kept entreating 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 loathsome to the sons of my own mother;
18 Even little boys scorn me; when I appear, they deride me.
Even young children, despise me, I rise up, and they speak against me;
19 All my best friends despise me, and those I love have turned against me.
All the men of mine intimate circle abhor me, and, these whom I loved, have turned against me;
20 My skin and flesh cling to my bones; I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
Unto my skin and unto my flesh, have my bones cleaved, and I have escaped with the akin of my teeth.
21 Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.
Pity me! pity me! ye, my friends, for, the hand of GOD, hath stricken me!
22 Why do you persecute me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh?
Wherefore should ye persecute me as GOD? and, with my flesh, should not he satisfied?
23 I wish that my words were recorded and inscribed in a book,
Oh, then, that my words, could be written, Oh that, in a record, they could be inscribed:
24 by an iron stylus on lead, or chiseled in stone forever.
That, with a stylus of iron and [with] lead, for all time—in the rock, they could be graven!
25 But I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth.
But, I, know that, my redeemer, liveth, and, as the Last over [my] dust, will he arise;
26 Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.
And, though, after my skin is struck off, this [followeth], yet, apart from my flesh, shall I 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 myself, shall see, on my side, and, mine own eyes, [shall] have looked upon, and not those of a stranger. Exhausted are my deepest desires in my bosom!
28 If you say, ‘Let us persecute him, since the root of the matter lies with him,’
Surely ye should say—Why should we persecute him? seeing, the root of the matter, is found in me.
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 ye afraid—on your part—of the face of the sword, because, wrath, [bringeth] the punishments of the sword, to the end ye may know the Almighty.
