Job 19
1 Then Job answered,
Then Job answered, and said:
2 “How long will you torment me, and crush me with words?
How long do you afflict my soul, and break me in pieces with words?
3 You have reproached me ten times. You aren’t ashamed that you attack me.
Behold, these ten times you confound me, and are not ashamed to oppress me.
4 If it is true that I have erred, my error remains with myself.
For if I have been ignorant, my ignorance shall be with me.
5 If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach,
But you have set yourselves up against me, and reprove me with my reproaches.
6 know now that God has subverted me, and has surrounded me with his net.
At least now understand, that God hath not afflicted me with an equal judgment, and compassed me with his scourges.
7 “Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard. I cry for help, but there is no justice.
Behold I cry suffering violence, and no one will hear: I shall cry aloud, and there is none to judge.
8 He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and has set darkness in my paths.
He hath hedged in my path round about, and I cannot pass, and in my way he hath set darkness.
9 He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.
He hath stripped me of my glory, and hath taken 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 hath destroyed me on every side, and I am lost, and he hath taken away my hope, as from a tree that is plucked up.
11 He has also kindled his wrath against me. He counts me amongst his adversaries.
His wrath is kindled against me, and he hath counted me as his enemy.
12 His troops come on together, build a siege ramp against me, and encamp around my tent.
His troops have come together, and have made themselves a way by me, and have besieged my tabernacle round about.
13 “He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
He hath put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintance like strangers have departed from me.
14 My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me.
My kinsmen have forsaken me, and they that knew me, have forgotten me.
15 Those who dwell in my house and my maids consider me a stranger. I am an alien in their sight.
They that dwelt in my house, and my maidservants have counted me a stranger, and I have been like an alien in their eyes.
16 I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer. I beg him with my mouth.
I called my servant, and he gave me no answer, I entreated him with my own mouth.
17 My breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.
My wife hath abhorred my breath, and I entreated the children of my womb.
18 Even young children despise me. If I arise, they speak against me.
Even fools despise me; and when I gone from them, they spoke against me.
19 All my familiar friends abhor me. They whom I loved have turned against me.
They that were sometime my counsellors, have abhorred me: and he whom I love most is turned against me.
20 My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
The flesh being consumed. My bone hath cleaved to my skin, and nothing but lips are left about my teeth.
21 “Have pity on me. Have pity on me, you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me.
Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least you my friends, because the hand of the Lord hath touched me.
22 Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
Why do you persecute me as God, and glut yourselves with my flesh?
23 “Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
Who will grant me that my words may be written? Who will grant me that they may be marked down in a book?
24 That with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!
With an iron pen and in a plate of lead, or else be graven with an instrument in flint stone.
25 But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.
For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth.
26 After my skin is destroyed, then I will see God in my flesh,
And I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I will see my 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 myself shall see, and my eyes shall behold, and not another: this my hope is laid up in my bosom.
28 If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’ because the root of the matter is found in me,
Why then do you say now: Let us persecute him, and let us find occasion of word against him?
29 be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, that you may know there is a judgement.”
Flee then from the face of the sword, for the sword is the revenger of iniquities: and know ye that there is judgment.
