Job 19
1 And Job answers and says:
But Job answered and said:
2 “Until when do you afflict my soul, And bruise me with words?
How long will ye vex my soul, And break me in pieces with words?
3 These ten times you put me to shame, you do not blush. You make yourselves strange to me—
These ten times have ye reviled me; Without shame do ye stun me!
4 And also—truly, I have erred, My error remains with me.
And be it, indeed, that I have erred, My error abideth with myself.
5 If, truly, you magnify yourselves over me, And decide my reproach against me;
Since, indeed, ye magnify yourselves against me, And plead against me my reproach,
6 Know now, that God turned me upside down, And has set around His net against me,
Know then that it is God who hath brought me low; He hath encompassed me with his net.
7 Behold, I cry out—violence, and am not answered, I cry aloud, and there is no judgment.
Behold, I complain of wrong, but receive no answer; I cry aloud, but obtain no justice.
8 He hedged up my way, and I do not pass over, And He places darkness on my paths.
He hath fenced up my way, so that I cannot pass, And hath set darkness in my paths.
9 He has stripped my honor from off me, And He turns the crown from my head.
He hath stripped me of my glory, And taken the crown from my head.
10 He breaks me down all around, and I go, And removes my hope like a tree.
He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone! He hath torn up my hope like a tree.
11 And He kindles His anger against me, And reckons me to Him as His adversaries.
He kindleth his anger against me, And counteth me as his enemy.
12 His troops come in together, And they raise up their way against me, And encamp around my tent.
His troops advance together against me; They throw up for themselves a way to me, And encamp around my dwelling.
13 He has put my brothers far off from me, And my acquaintances have surely been estranged from me.
My brethren he hath put far from me, And my acquaintance are wholly estranged from me.
14 My neighbors have ceased And my familiar friends have forgotten me,
My kinsfolk have forsaken me, And my bosom 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.
The foreigners of my house, yea, my own maid-servants, regard me as a stranger; I am an alien in their eyes.
16 I have called to my servant, And he does not answer, With my mouth I make supplication to him.
I call my servant, and he maketh no answer; With my own mouth do I entreat him.
17 My spirit is strange to my wife, And my favors to the sons of my [mother’s] womb.
My breath is become strange to my wife, And my prayers also to my own mother's sons.
18 Also sucklings have despised me, I rise, and they speak against me.
Even young children despise me; When I rise up, they speak against me.
19 All the men of my counsel detest me, And those I have loved, Have been turned against me.
All my bosom friends abhor me, And they whom I loved 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 cleave to my flesh and my skin, And I have scarcely escaped with the skin of my teeth.
21 Pity me, pity me, you my friends, For the hand of God has struck against me.
Have pity upon me, O ye my friends! have pity upon me; For the hand of God hath smitten me!
22 Why do you pursue me as God? And are not satisfied with my flesh?
Why do ye persecute me like God, And are not satisfied with my flesh?
23 Who grants now, that my words may be written? Who grants that they may be inscribed in a scroll?
O that my words were now written! O that they were marked down in a scroll!
24 With a pen of iron and lead—They may be hewn in a rock forever.
That with an iron pen, and with lead, They were engraven upon the rock for ever!
25 That—I have known my Redeemer, The Living and the Last, For He raises the dust.
Yet I know that my Vindicator liveth, And will hereafter stand up on the earth;
26 And after my skin has surrounded this [body], Then from my flesh I see God—
And though with my skin this body be wasted away, Yet without my flesh shall I 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.
Yea, I shall see him my friend; My eyes shall behold him, and not another: For this, my soul panteth within me.
28 But you say, Why do we pursue after him? And the root of the matter has been found in me.
Since ye say, “How may we persecute him, And find grounds of accusation against 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 ye afraid of the sword! For malice is a crime for the sword; That ye may know that judgment cometh.
