Job 19
1 And Job answers and says:
Then Job answered and said,
2 “Until when do you afflict my soul, And bruise me with words?
“How long will you make me suffer and break me into 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 you have reproached me; you are not ashamed that you have treated me harshly.
4 And also—truly, I have erred, My error remains with me.
If it is indeed true that I have erred, my error remains my own concern.
5 If, truly, you magnify yourselves over me, And decide my reproach against me;
If indeed you will exalt yourselves above me and use my humiliation against me,
6 Know now, that God turned me upside down, And has set around His net against me,
then you should know that God has done wrong to me and has caught me in his net.
7 Behold, I cry out—violence, and am not answered, I cry aloud, and there is no judgment.
See, I cry out, “Violence!” but I get no answer. I call out for help, but there is no justice.
8 He hedged up my way, and I do not pass over, And He places darkness on my paths.
He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness in my path.
9 He has stripped my honor from off me, And He turns the crown from my head.
He has stripped me of my glory, and he has taken the crown from my head.
10 He breaks me down all around, and I go, And removes my hope like a tree.
He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone; he has pulled up my hope like a tree.
11 And He kindles His anger against me, And reckons me to Him as His adversaries.
He has also kindled his wrath against me; he regards me as one of his adversaries.
12 His troops come in together, And they raise up their way against me, And encamp around my tent.
His troops come on together; they cast up siege mounds against me and encamp around my tent.
13 He has put my brothers far off from me, And my acquaintances have surely been estranged from me.
He has put my brothers far from me; my acquaintances are wholly alienated from me.
14 My neighbors have ceased And my familiar friends have forgotten me,
My kinsfolk have failed 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.
Those who once stayed as guests in my house and my female servants regard me as a stranger; I am an alien in their sight.
16 I have called to my servant, And he does not answer, With my mouth I make supplication to him.
I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer although I entreat him with my mouth.
17 My spirit is strange to my wife, And my favors to the sons of my [mother’s] womb.
My breath is offensive to my wife; I am even disgusting to those who were born from my mother's womb.
18 Also sucklings have despised me, I rise, and they speak against me.
Even young children despise me; if I rise to speak, 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 familiar friends abhor me; those whom I love have 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 cling to my skin and to my flesh; I survive only 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 upon me, have pity upon me, my friends, for the hand of God has touched me.
22 Why do you pursue me as God? And are not satisfied with my flesh?
Why do you pursue me like God does? Will you ever be satisfied with my flesh?
23 Who grants now, that my words may be written? Who grants that they may be inscribed in a scroll?
Oh, that my words were now written down! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book!
24 With a pen of iron and lead—They may be hewn in a rock forever.
Oh, that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!
25 That—I have known my Redeemer, The Living and the Last, For He raises the dust.
But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at last he will stand on the earth;
26 And after my skin has surrounded this [body], Then from my flesh I see God—
after my skin, that is, this body, is destroyed, then in 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.
I will see him with my own eyes—I, and not someone else. My heart fails within me.
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 we will persecute him! The root of his troubles lies 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.”
then be afraid of the sword, because wrath brings the punishment of the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment.”
