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