Job 19

1 Then Job answered and said,

Then responded Job, 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.

How long will ye grieve my soul? or crush me with words?

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

These ten times, have ye reviled me, Shameless ye wrong 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 even if indeed I have erred, with myself lodgeth mine error.

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

If indeed, against me, ye must needs magnify yourselves, and plead, against me, my reproach.

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

Know, then, that, God, hath overthrown me, and, within his net, enclosed me.

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

Lo! I cry—out: Violence! but receive no answer, I cry aloud, but there is no vindication;

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

My way, hath he walled up, that I cannot pass, and, upon my paths, hath he made darkness rest;

9 And he has stripped me of my glory, and has taken the crown from my head.

My glory—from off me, hath he stripped, and hath removed the crown of my head;

10 He has torn me around about, and I am gone: and he has cut off my hope 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 And he has dreadfully handled me in anger, and has counted me for an enemy.

Yea he hath kindled against me his anger, and accounted me towards him like unto his adversaries;

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

Together, enter his troops and have cast up, against me, their mound, and have encamped all around my tent;

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

My Brethren—from beside me, hath he moved far away, and, mine acquaintance, are wholly estranged from me;

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

Failed me, have my near of kin, and, mine intimate acquaintances, have forgotten me;

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

Ye guests of my house and my maidens, A stranger, have ye accounted me, An alien, have I become in their eyes;

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

To mine own servant, I called, and he would not answer, With mine own mouth, I kept entreating him;

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

My breath, is strange to my wife, and I am loathsome to the sons of my own mother;

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

Even young children, despise me, I rise up, 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 mine intimate circle abhor me, and, these whom I loved, have turned against me;

20 My flesh is corrupt under my skin, and my bones are held 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 Pity me, pity me, O friends; for it is the hand of the Lord that has touched me.

Pity me! pity me! ye, my friends, for, the hand of GOD, hath stricken me!

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

Wherefore should ye persecute me as GOD? and, with my flesh, should not he satisfied?

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

Oh, then, that my words, could be written, Oh that, in a record, they could be inscribed:

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

That, with a stylus of iron and [with] lead, for all time—in the rock, they could be graven!

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

But, I, know that, my redeemer, liveth, and, as the Last over [my] dust, will he arise;

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, though, after my skin is struck off, this [followeth], yet, apart from my flesh, shall 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 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 But if you shall also say, What shall we say before him, and [so] find the root of the matter in him?

Surely ye should say—Why should we persecute him? seeing, the root of the matter, is 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 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.