Job 19
1Then Job answered and said, 1
2“How long will you make me suffer 1 and break me into pieces with words? 1
3These ten times you have reproached me; 1 you are not ashamed that you have treated me harshly. 1
4If it is indeed true that I have erred, 1 my error remains my own concern. 1
5If indeed you will exalt yourselves above me 1 and use my humiliation against me, 1
6then you should know that God has done wrong to me 1 and has caught me in his net. 1
7See, I cry out, “Violence!” but I get no answer. 1 I call out for help, but there is no justice. 1
8He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass, 1 and he has set darkness in my path. 1
9He has stripped me of my glory, 1 and he has taken the crown from my head. 1
10He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone; 1 he has pulled up my hope like a tree. 1
11He has also kindled his wrath against me; 1 he regards me as one of his adversaries. 1
12His troops come on together; 1 they cast up siege mounds against me 1 and encamp around my tent. 1
13He has put my brothers far from me; 1 my acquaintances are wholly alienated from me. 1
14My kinsfolk have failed me; 1 my close friends have forgotten me. 1
15Those who once stayed as guests in my house and my female servants regard me as a stranger; 1 I am an alien in their sight. 1
16I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer 1 although I entreat him with my mouth. 1
17My breath is offensive to my wife; 1 I am even disgusting to those who were born from my mother's womb. 1
18Even young children despise me; 1 if I rise to speak, they speak against me. 1
19All my familiar friends abhor me; 1 those whom I love have turned against me. 1
20My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh; 1 I survive only by the skin of my teeth. 1
21Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, my friends, 1 for the hand of God has touched me. 1
22Why do you pursue me like God does? 1 Will you ever be satisfied with my flesh? 1
23Oh, that my words were now written down! 1 Oh, that they were inscribed in a book! 1
24Oh, that with an iron pen and lead 1 they were engraved in the rock forever! 1
25But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, 1 and that at last he will stand on the earth; 1
26after my skin, that is, this body, is destroyed, 1 then in my flesh I will see God. 1
27I will see him with my own eyes—I, and not someone else. 1 My heart fails within me. 1
28If you say, 'How we will persecute him! 1 The root of his troubles lies in him,' 1
29then be afraid of the sword, 1 because wrath brings the punishment of the sword, 1 so that you may know there is a judgment.”