Job 19
1 Then Job answered and said,
And Job answers and says:
2 How long will you vex my soul, and destroy me with words? only know that the Lord has dealt with me thus.
“Until when do you afflict my soul, And bruise me with words?
3 You speak against me; you do not feel for me, but bear hard upon me.
These ten times you put me to shame, you do not blush. You make yourselves strange to me—
4 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.
And also—truly, I have erred, My error remains with me.
5 But alas! for you magnify yourselves against me, and insult me with reproach.
If, truly, you magnify yourselves over me, And decide my reproach against me;
6 Know then that it is the Lord that has troubled [me], and has raised his bulwark against me.
Know now, that God turned me upside down, And has set around His net against me,
7 Behold, I laugh at reproach; I will not speak: [or] I will cry out, but [there is] nowhere judgement.
Behold, I cry out—violence, and am not answered, I cry aloud, and there is no judgment.
8 I am fenced round about, and can by no means escape: he has set darkness before my face.
He hedged up my way, and I do not pass over, And He places darkness on my paths.
9 And he has stripped me of my glory, and has taken the crown from my head.
He has stripped my honor from off me, And He turns the crown from my head.
10 He has torn me around about, and I am gone: and he has cut off my hope like a tree.
He breaks me down all around, and I go, And removes my hope like a tree.
11 And he has dreadfully handled me in anger, and has counted me for an enemy.
And He kindles His anger against me, And reckons me to Him as His adversaries.
12 His troops also came upon me with one accord, liars in wait compassed my ways.
His troops come in together, And they raise up their way against me, And encamp around my tent.
13 My brethren have stood aloof from me; they have recognised strangers [rather] than me: and my friends have become pitiless.
He has put my brothers far off from me, And my acquaintances have surely been estranged from me.
14 My nearest of kin have not acknowledged me, and they that knew my name, have forgotten me.
My neighbors have ceased And my familiar friends have forgotten me,
15 [As for] my household, and my maidservants, I was a stranger before them.
Sojourners of my house and my maids, Reckon me for a stranger; I have been an alien in their eyes.
16 I called my servant, and he listened not; and my mouth entreated [him].
I have called to my servant, And he does not answer, With my mouth I make supplication to him.
17 And I implored my wife, and earnestly entreated the sons of my concubines.
My spirit is strange to my wife, And my favors to the sons of my [mother’s] womb.
18 But they rejected me for ever; whenever I rise up, they speak against me.
Also sucklings have despised me, I rise, and they speak against me.
19 They that saw me abhorred me: the very persons whom I had loved, rose up against me.
All the men of my counsel detest me, And those I have loved, Have been turned against me.
20 My flesh is corrupt under my skin, and my bones are held in [my] teeth.
To my skin and to my flesh My bone has cleaved, And I deliver myself with the skin of my teeth.
21 Pity me, pity me, O friends; for it is the hand of the Lord that has touched me.
Pity me, pity me, you my friends, For the hand of God has struck against me.
22 Therefore do you persecute me as also the Lord [does], and are not satisfied with my flesh?
Why do you pursue me as God? And are not satisfied with my flesh?
23 For oh that my words were written, and that they were recorded in a book forever,
Who grants now, that my words may be written? Who grants that they may be inscribed in a scroll?
24 with an iron pen and lead, or graven in the rocks!
With a pen of iron and lead—They may be hewn in a rock forever.
25 For I know that he is eternal who is about to deliver me,
That—I have known my Redeemer, The Living and the Last, For He raises the dust.
26 [and] to raise up upon the earth my skin that endures these [sufferings]: for these things have been accomplished to me of the Lord;
And after my skin has surrounded this [body], Then from my flesh I see God—
27 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.
Whom I see on my side, And my eyes have beheld, and not a stranger, My reins have been consumed in my bosom.
28 But if you shall also say, What shall we say before him, and [so] find the root of the matter in him?
But you say, Why do we pursue after him? And the root of the matter has been found in me.
29 Do you also beware of deceit: for wrath will come upon transgressors; and then shall they know where their substance is.
Be afraid because of the sword, For the punishments of the sword [are] furious, That you may know that [there is] a judgment.”
