Job 19

1 Then Job answered and said,

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

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

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

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

7 Behold, I laugh at reproach; I will not speak: [or] I will cry out, but [there is] nowhere judgement.

8 I am fenced round about, and can by no means escape: he has set darkness before my face.

9 And he has stripped me of my glory, and has taken 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.

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

12 His troops also came upon me with one accord, liars in wait compassed my ways.

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

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

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

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

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

18 But they rejected me for ever; whenever I rise up, they speak against me.

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

20 My flesh is corrupt under my skin, and my bones are held in [my] teeth.

21 Pity me, pity me, O friends; for it is the hand of the Lord that has touched me.

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

23 For oh that my words were written, and that they were recorded in a book forever,

24 with an iron pen and lead, or graven in the rocks!

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

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;

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.

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

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