Job 19
1 Job replied,
And Job answers and says:
2 “How long will you go on tormenting me? How long will you go on crushing me with words?
“Until when do you afflict my soul, And bruise me with words?
3 Ten times already you have humiliated me. Aren't you ashamed for treating me so badly?
These ten times you put me to shame, you do not blush. You make yourselves strange to me—
4 Even if I did sin, that's my problem, and has nothing to do with you.
And also—truly, I have erred, My error remains with me.
5 You think you're so much better than me, and you use my degradation against me.
If, truly, you magnify yourselves over me, And decide my reproach against me;
6 But you should realize that it's God who has wronged me, he has trapped me in his net.
Know now, that God turned me upside down, And has set around His net against me,
7 Even though I cry for help, I get no answer; even though I shout my objections, I get no justice.
Behold, I cry out—violence, and am not answered, I cry aloud, and there is no judgment.
8 God has walled me in so I can't escape; he has plunged my path into darkness.
He hedged up my way, and I do not pass over, And He places darkness on my paths.
9 He has stripped my honor from me; he has taken away my reputation.
He has stripped my honor from off me, And He turns the crown from my head.
10 He tears me down from all sides until I am finished; he has destroyed my hope like a tree that is uprooted.
He breaks me down all around, and I go, And removes my hope like a tree.
11 His anger burns against me; he treats me as one of his enemies.
And He kindles His anger against me, And reckons me to Him as His adversaries.
12 God's troops assemble to attack me. They build ramparts against me. They encircle and besiege my home.
His troops come in together, And they raise up their way against me, And encamp around my tent.
13 He has driven my brothers far away from me; all my former friends are estranged from me.
He has put my brothers far off from me, And my acquaintances have surely been estranged from me.
14 My relatives have abandoned me; my close friends have forgotten me.
My neighbors have ceased And my familiar friends have forgotten me,
15 My house guests and my maidservants treat me as a stranger—to them I have become a foreigner.
Sojourners of my house and my maids, Reckon me for a stranger; I have been an alien in their eyes.
16 I call my servant, but he doesn't reply. I have to beg him!
I have called to my servant, And he does not answer, With my mouth I make supplication to him.
17 I am repulsive to my wife, and I am loathsome to my own brothers.
My spirit is strange to my wife, And my favors to the sons of my [mother’s] womb.
18 Even young children despise me; when I stand up they ridicule me.
Also sucklings have despised me, I rise, and they speak against me.
19 All my closest friends despise me, and those I loved have turned on me.
All the men of my counsel detest me, And those I have loved, Have been turned against me.
20 I've been reduced to skin and bones and I survive by the skin of my teeth.
To my skin and to my flesh My bone has cleaved, And I deliver myself with the skin of my teeth.
21 Have pity on me, my friends, have pity on me, because God has struck me down!
Pity me, pity me, you my friends, For the hand of God has struck against me.
22 Why are you persecuting me like God does? Aren't you satisfied with getting your pound of flesh?
Why do you pursue me as God? And are not satisfied with my flesh?
23 I wish my words could be written down, recorded in a book,
Who grants now, that my words may be written? Who grants that they may be inscribed in a scroll?
24 or engraved with an iron pen and molten lead in the rock forever.
With a pen of iron and lead—They may be hewn in a rock forever.
25 I know my Redeemer is alive, and that he shall finally take the stand for me on the earth.
That—I have known my Redeemer, The Living and the Last, For He raises the dust.
26 Even though my skin is destroyed, in my body I shall see God.
And after my skin has surrounded this [body], Then from my flesh I see God—
27 I myself will see him—with my own eyes, and not those of someone else! The thought overcomes me!
Whom I see on my side, And my eyes have beheld, and not a stranger, My reins have been consumed in my bosom.
28 You say to yourselves, ‘How can we make him suffer so he can see he is the source of his problems?’
But you say, Why do we pursue after him? And the root of the matter has been found in me.
29 You yourselves should fear being punished by God, for you know anger brings God's punishment that accompanies judgment.”
Be afraid because of the sword, For the punishments of the sword [are] furious, That you may know that [there is] a judgment.”
