Job 19
1 Then Job answered,
And Job answers and says:
2 “How long will you torment me, and crush me with words?
“Until when do you afflict my soul, And bruise me with words?
3 You have reproached me ten times. You aren’t ashamed that you attack me.
These ten times you put me to shame, you do not blush. You make yourselves strange to me—
4 If it is true that I have erred, my error remains with myself.
And also—truly, I have erred, My error remains with me.
5 If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach,
If, truly, you magnify yourselves over me, And decide my reproach against me;
6 know now that God has subverted me, and has surrounded me with his net.
Know now, that God turned me upside down, And has set around His net against me,
7 “Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard. I cry 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 can’t pass, and has set darkness in my paths.
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 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 plucked my hope up 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 counts me amongst his adversaries.
And He kindles His anger against me, And reckons me to Him as His adversaries.
12 His troops come on together, build a siege ramp 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 estranged from me.
He has put my brothers far off from me, And my acquaintances have surely been estranged from me.
14 My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me.
My neighbors have ceased And my familiar friends have forgotten me,
15 Those who dwell in my house and my maids consider me 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, and he gives me no answer. I beg 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 loathsome to the children of my own mother.
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 arise, they speak against me.
Also sucklings have despised me, I rise, and they speak against me.
19 All my familiar friends abhor me. They whom I loved 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 stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped 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 on me. Have pity on me, you 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 persecute me as God, and are not 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! 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 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. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.
That—I have known my Redeemer, The Living and the Last, For He raises the dust.
26 After my skin is destroyed, then I will see God in my flesh,
And after my skin has surrounded this [body], Then from my flesh I see God—
27 whom I, even I, will see on my side. My eyes will see, and not as a stranger. “My heart is consumed 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!’ because the root of the matter is found in me,
But you say, Why do we pursue after him? And the root of the matter has been found in me.
29 be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, that you may know there is a judgement.”
Be afraid because of the sword, For the punishments of the sword [are] furious, That you may know that [there is] a judgment.”
