Job 19

1Then Job [1] responded,

2“How long will you torment [1] me

And crush me with words?

3These ten times you have insulted me;

You are not ashamed to wrong me.

4Even if I have truly erred,

My error lodges with me.

5If indeed you vaunt yourselves against me

And prove my disgrace to me,

6Know then that God has wronged me

And has closed His net around me.

7“Behold, I cry, ‘Violence!’ but I get no answer;

I shout for help, but there is no justice.

8He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass,

And He has put darkness on my paths.

9He has stripped my honor from me

And removed the crown from my head.

10He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone;

And He has uprooted my hope like a tree.

11He has also kindled His anger against me

And considered me as His enemy.

12His troops come together,

And build up their [1] way against me

And camp around my tent.

13“He has removed my brothers far from me,

And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.

14My relatives have failed,

And my intimate friends have forgotten me.

15Those who live in my house and my maids consider me a stranger.

I am a foreigner in their sight.

16I call to my servant, but he does not answer;

I have to implore him with my mouth.

17My breath is [1] offensive to my wife,

And I am loathsome to my own brothers.

18Even young children despise me;

I rise up and they speak against me.

19All [1] my associates abhor me,

And those I love have turned against me.

20My bone clings to my skin and my flesh,

And I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.

21Pity me, pity me, O you my friends,

For the hand of God has struck me.

22Why do you persecute me as God does,

And are not satisfied with my flesh?

23“Oh that my words were written!

Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

24That with an iron stylus and lead

They were engraved in the rock forever!

25As for me, I know that my [1] Redeemer lives,

And [2] at the last He will take His stand on the [3] earth.

26Even after my skin [1] is destroyed,

Yet from my flesh I shall see God;

27Whom I [1] myself shall behold,

And whom my eyes will see and not another.

My [2] heart faints [3] within me!

28If you say, ‘How shall we persecute him?’

And ‘[1] What pretext for a case against him can we find?’

29Then be afraid of the sword for yourselves,

For wrath brings the punishment of the sword,

So that you may know there is judgment.”