Job 19
1 And Job answers and says:
And Job made answer and said,
2 “Until when do you afflict my soul, And bruise me with words?
How long will you make my life bitter, crushing me with words?
3 These ten times you put me to shame, you do not blush. You make yourselves strange to me—
Ten times now you have made sport of me; it gives you no sense of shame to do me wrong.
4 And also—truly, I have erred, My error remains with me.
And, truly, if I have been in error, the effect of my error is only on myself.
5 If, truly, you magnify yourselves over me, And decide my reproach against me;
If you make yourselves great against me, using my punishment as an argument against me,
6 Know now, that God turned me upside down, And has set around His net against me,
Be certain that it is God who has done me wrong, and has taken me in his net.
7 Behold, I cry out—violence, and am not answered, I cry aloud, and there is no judgment.
Truly, I make an outcry against the violent man, but there is no answer: I give a cry for help, but no one takes up my cause.
8 He hedged up my way, and I do not pass over, And He places darkness on my paths.
My way is walled up by him so that I may not go by: he has made my roads dark.
9 He has stripped my honor from off me, And He turns the crown from my head.
He has put off my glory from me, and taken the crown from my head.
10 He breaks me down all around, and I go, And removes my hope like a tree.
I am broken down by him on every side, and I am gone; my hope is uprooted like a tree.
11 And He kindles His anger against me, And reckons me to Him as His adversaries.
His wrath is burning against me, and I am to him as one of his haters.
12 His troops come in together, And they raise up their way against me, And encamp around my tent.
His armies come on together, they make their road high against me, and put up their tents round mine.
13 He has put my brothers far off from me, And my acquaintances have surely been estranged from me.
He has taken my brothers far away from me; they have seen my fate and have become strange to me.
14 My neighbors have ceased And my familiar friends have forgotten me,
My relations and my near friends have given me up, and those living in my house have put me out of their minds.
15 Sojourners of my house and my maids, Reckon me for a stranger; I have been an alien in their eyes.
I am strange to my women-servants, and seem to them as one from another country.
16 I have called to my servant, And he does not answer, With my mouth I make supplication to him.
At my cry my servant gives me no answer, and I have to make a prayer to him.
17 My spirit is strange to my wife, And my favors to the sons of my [mother’s] womb.
My breath is strange to my wife, and I am disgusting to the offspring of my mother's body.
18 Also sucklings have despised me, I rise, and they speak against me.
Even young children have no respect for me; when I get up their backs are turned on me.
19 All the men of my counsel detest me, And those I have loved, Have been turned against me.
All the men of my circle keep away from me; and those dear to me are turned against me.
20 To my skin and to my flesh My bone has cleaved, And I deliver myself with the skin of my teeth.
My bones are joined to my skin, and I have got away with my flesh in my teeth.
21 Pity me, pity me, you my friends, For the hand of God has struck against me.
Have pity on me, have pity on me, O my friends! for the hand of God is on me.
22 Why do you pursue me as God? And are not satisfied with my flesh?
Why are you cruel to me, like God, for ever saying evil against me?
23 Who grants now, that my words may be written? Who grants that they may be inscribed in a scroll?
If only my words might be recorded! if they might be put in writing in a book!
24 With a pen of iron and lead—They may be hewn in a rock forever.
And with an iron pen and lead be cut into the rock for ever!
25 That—I have known my Redeemer, The Living and the Last, For He raises the dust.
But I am certain that he who will take up my cause is living, and that in time to come he will take his place on the dust;
26 And after my skin has surrounded this [body], Then from my flesh I see God—
And ... without my flesh I will see God;
27 Whom I see on my side, And my eyes have beheld, and not a stranger, My reins have been consumed in my bosom.
Whom I will see on my side, and not as one strange to me. My heart is broken with desire.
28 But you say, Why do we pursue after him? And the root of the matter has been found in me.
If you say, How cruel we will be to him! because the root of sin is clearly in him:
29 Be afraid because of the sword, For the punishments of the sword [are] furious, That you may know that [there is] a judgment.”
Be in fear of the sword, for the sword is the punishment for such things, so that you may be certain that there is a judge.
