Job 19
1 Then Job answered and said,
And Job answers and says:
2 “How long will you make me suffer and break me into pieces with words?
“Until when do you afflict my soul, And bruise me with words?
3 These ten times you have reproached me; you are not ashamed that you have treated me harshly.
These ten times you put me to shame, you do not blush. You make yourselves strange to me—
4 If it is indeed true that I have erred, my error remains my own concern.
And also—truly, I have erred, My error remains with me.
5 If indeed you will exalt yourselves above me and use my humiliation against me,
If, truly, you magnify yourselves over me, And decide my reproach against me;
6 then you should know that God has done wrong to me and has caught me in his net.
Know now, that God turned me upside down, And has set around His net against me,
7 See, I cry out, “Violence!” but I get no answer. I call out for help, but there is no justice.
Behold, I cry out—violence, and am not answered, I cry aloud, and there is no judgment.
8 He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness in my path.
He hedged up my way, and I do not pass over, And He places darkness on my paths.
9 He has stripped me of my glory, and he has taken the crown from my head.
He has stripped my honor from off me, And He turns the crown from my head.
10 He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone; he has pulled up my hope like a tree.
He breaks me down all around, and I go, And removes my hope like a tree.
11 He has also kindled his wrath against me; he regards me as one of his adversaries.
And He kindles His anger against me, And reckons me to Him as His adversaries.
12 His troops come on together; they cast up siege mounds against me and encamp around my tent.
His troops come in together, And they raise up their way against me, And encamp around my tent.
13 He has put my brothers far from me; my acquaintances are wholly alienated from me.
He has put my brothers far off from me, And my acquaintances have surely been estranged from me.
14 My kinsfolk have failed me; my close friends have forgotten me.
My neighbors have ceased And my familiar friends have forgotten me,
15 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.
Sojourners of my house and my maids, Reckon me for a stranger; I have been an alien in their eyes.
16 I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer although I entreat him with my mouth.
I have called to my servant, And he does not answer, With my mouth I make supplication to him.
17 My breath is offensive to my wife; I am even disgusting to those who were born from my mother's womb.
My spirit is strange to my wife, And my favors to the sons of my [mother’s] womb.
18 Even young children despise me; if I rise to speak, they speak against me.
Also sucklings have despised me, I rise, and they speak against me.
19 All my familiar friends abhor me; those whom I love have turned against me.
All the men of my counsel detest me, And those I have loved, Have been turned against me.
20 My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh; I survive only by the skin of my teeth.
To my skin and to my flesh My bone has cleaved, And I deliver myself with the skin of my teeth.
21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, my friends, for the hand of God has touched me.
Pity me, pity me, you my friends, For the hand of God has struck against me.
22 Why do you pursue me like God does? Will you ever be satisfied with my flesh?
Why do you pursue me as God? And are not satisfied with my flesh?
23 Oh, that my words were now written down! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book!
Who grants now, that my words may be written? Who grants that they may be inscribed in a scroll?
24 Oh, that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!
With a pen of iron and lead—They may be hewn in a rock forever.
25 But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at last he will stand on the earth;
That—I have known my Redeemer, The Living and the Last, For He raises the dust.
26 after my skin, that is, this body, is destroyed, then in my flesh I will see God.
And after my skin has surrounded this [body], Then from my flesh I see God—
27 I will see him with my own eyes—I, and not someone else. My heart fails within me.
Whom I see on my side, And my eyes have beheld, and not a stranger, My reins have been consumed in my bosom.
28 If you say, 'How we will persecute him! The root of his troubles lies in him,'
But you say, Why do we pursue after him? And the root of the matter has been found in me.
29 then be afraid of the sword, because wrath brings the punishment of the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment.”
Be afraid because of the sword, For the punishments of the sword [are] furious, That you may know that [there is] a judgment.”
