Job 19
1 But Job answered by saying:
Then Job answered, and said,
2 How long will you afflict my soul and wear me down with words?
How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?
3 So, ten times you confound me and are not ashamed to oppress me.
These ten times ye have reproached me. Ye are not ashamed that ye deal hardly with me.
4 Now, of course, if I have been ignorant, my ignorance will be with me.
And be it indeed that I have erred, my error remains with myself.
5 But you have risen up against me, and you accuse me to my disgrace.
If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach,
6 At least now you should understand that God has not afflicted me with a balanced judgment, though he has encompassed me with his scourges.
know now that God has subverted me, and has encompassed me with his net.
7 Behold, I will cry out, enduring violence, and no one will hear. I will announce loudly, but there is no one who may judge.
Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard. I cry for help, but there is no justice.
8 He has hemmed in my path, and I cannot pass; he has added darkness to my difficult path.
He has walled up my way that I cannot pass, and has set darkness in my paths.
9 He has plundered me of my glory, and he has stolen the crown from my head.
He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.
10 He has destroyed me on every side, and I am lost, and, like an uprooted tree, he has taken away my hope.
He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. And he has plucked up my hope like a tree.
11 His fury has raged against me, and in this way he has treated me like his enemy.
He has also kindled his wrath against me. And he considers me to him as his adversaries.
12 His troops have gathered together, and they have made their way to me, and they have besieged my tabernacle all around.
His troops come on together, and cast up their way against me, and encamp round about my tent.
13 He has put my brothers far from me, and my friends have withdrawn from me like strangers.
He has put my brothers far from me, and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
14 My kinsmen have forsaken me, and those who knew me, have forgotten me.
My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.
15 The inhabitants of my house and my maidservants treat me just as if I were a stranger, and I have been like a sojourner in their eyes.
Those who dwell in my house, and my maids, reckon me for a stranger; I am an alien in their sight.
16 I called my servant, and he did not respond; I pleaded with him with my own mouth.
I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer. I entreat him with my mouth.
17 My wife has shuddered at my breath, and I have begged the sons of my loins.
My breath is strange to my wife, and my supplication to the sons of my own mother.
18 Even the foolish have looked down on me, and, when I withdrew from them, they spoke ill of me.
Even young children despise me. If I arise, they speak against me.
19 Those who were sometimes my counselors, treat me like an abomination; and he whom I valued the most has turned against me.
All my familiar friends abhor me, and those whom I loved are turned against me.
20 Since my flesh has been consumed, my bone adheres to my skin, and only my lips have been left around my teeth.
My bone cleaves to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped with the skin of my teeth.
21 Have mercy on me, have compassion on me, at least you my friends, because the hand of the Lord has touched me.
Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends, for the hand of God has touched me.
22 Why do you pursue me just as God does, and satiate yourselves with my flesh?
Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
23 Who will grant to me that my words may be written down? Who will grant to me that they may be inscribed in a book,
O that my words were now written! O that they were inscribed in a book,
24 with an iron pen and a plate of lead, or else be carved in stone?
that they were engraved in the rock forever with an iron pen and lead!
25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and on the last day I will rise out of the earth.
But as for me I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand up upon the earth.
26 And I will be enveloped again with my skin, and in my flesh I will see my God.
And after my skin, this body, is destroyed, then outside my flesh I shall see God,
27 It is he whom I myself will see, and he whom my eyes will behold, and no other. This, my hope, has taken rest in my bosom.
whom I, even I, shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger. My heart is consumed within me.
28 Why then do you now say: “Let us pursue him, and let us find a basis to speak against him?”
If ye say, How we will persecute him! And that the root of the matter is found in me,
29 So then, flee from the face of the sword, for the sword is the avenger of iniquities; but know this: there is to be a judgment.
be ye afraid of the sword. For wrath brings the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.
