Job 19
1 And Job made answer and said,
Then responded Job, and said: —
2 How long will you make my life bitter, crushing me with words?
How long will ye grieve my soul? or crush me with words?
3 Ten times now you have made sport of me; it gives you no sense of shame to do me wrong.
These ten times, have ye reviled me, Shameless ye wrong me.
4 And, truly, if I have been in error, the effect of my error is only on myself.
And even if indeed I have erred, with myself lodgeth mine error.
5 If you make yourselves great against me, using my punishment as an argument against me,
If indeed, against me, ye must needs magnify yourselves, and plead, against me, my reproach.
6 Be certain that it is God who has done me wrong, and has taken me in his net.
Know, then, that, God, hath overthrown me, and, within his net, enclosed me.
7 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.
Lo! I cry—out: Violence! but receive no answer, I cry aloud, but there is no vindication;
8 My way is walled up by him so that I may not go by: he has made my roads dark.
My way, hath he walled up, that I cannot pass, and, upon my paths, hath he made darkness rest;
9 He has put off my glory from me, and taken the crown from my head.
My glory—from off me, hath he stripped, and hath removed the crown of my head;
10 I am broken down by him on every side, and I am gone; my hope is uprooted 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 wrath is burning against me, and I am to him as one of his haters.
Yea he hath kindled against me his anger, and accounted me towards him like unto his adversaries;
12 His armies come on together, they make their road high against me, and put up their tents round mine.
Together, enter his troops and have cast up, against me, their mound, and have encamped all around my tent;
13 He has taken my brothers far away from me; they have seen my fate and have become strange to me.
My Brethren—from beside me, hath he moved far away, and, mine acquaintance, are wholly estranged from me;
14 My relations and my near friends have given me up, and those living in my house have put me out of their minds.
Failed me, have my near of kin, and, mine intimate acquaintances, have forgotten me;
15 I am strange to my women-servants, and seem to them as one from another country.
Ye guests of my house and my maidens, A stranger, have ye accounted me, An alien, have I become in their eyes;
16 At my cry my servant gives me no answer, and I have to make a prayer to him.
To mine own servant, I called, and he would not answer, With mine own mouth, I kept entreating him;
17 My breath is strange to my wife, and I am disgusting to the offspring of my mother's body.
My breath, is strange to my wife, and I am loathsome to the sons of my own mother;
18 Even young children have no respect for me; when I get up their backs are turned on me.
Even young children, despise me, I rise up, and they speak against me;
19 All the men of my circle keep away from me; and those dear to me are turned against me.
All the men of mine intimate circle abhor me, and, these whom I loved, have turned against me;
20 My bones are joined to my skin, and I have got away with my flesh in 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, have pity on me, O my friends! for the hand of God is on me.
Pity me! pity me! ye, my friends, for, the hand of GOD, hath stricken me!
22 Why are you cruel to me, like God, for ever saying evil against me?
Wherefore should ye persecute me as GOD? and, with my flesh, should not he satisfied?
23 If only my words might be recorded! if they might be put in writing in a book!
Oh, then, that my words, could be written, Oh that, in a record, they could be inscribed:
24 And with an iron pen and lead be cut into the rock for ever!
That, with a stylus of iron and [with] lead, for all time—in the rock, they could be graven!
25 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;
But, I, know that, my redeemer, liveth, and, as the Last over [my] dust, will he arise;
26 And ... without 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 Whom I will see on my side, and not as one strange to me. My heart is broken with desire.
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, How cruel we will be to him! because the root of sin is clearly in him:
Surely ye should say—Why should we persecute him? seeing, the root of the matter, is found in me.
29 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.
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.
