Job 19

1 Then Job answered:

1 Then Job answered,

2 “How long will you torment me and crush me with your words?

2 “How long will you torment me, and crush me with words?

3 Ten times now you have reproached me; you shamelessly mistreat me.

3 You have reproached me ten times. You aren’t ashamed that you attack me.

4 Even if I have truly gone astray, my error concerns me alone.

4 If it is true that I have erred, my error remains with myself.

5 If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my disgrace against me,

5 If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach,

6 then understand that it is God who has wronged me and drawn His net around me.

6 know now that God has subverted me, and has surrounded me with his net.

7 Though I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice.

7 “Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard. I cry for help, but there is no justice.

8 He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; He has veiled my paths with darkness.

8 He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and has set darkness in my paths.

9 He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head.

9 He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.

10 He tears me down on every side until I am gone; He uproots my hope like a tree.

10 He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. He has plucked my hope up like a tree.

11 His anger burns against me, and He counts me among His enemies.

11 He has also kindled his wrath against me. He counts me among his adversaries.

12 His troops advance together; they construct a ramp against me and encamp around my tent.

12 His troops come on together, build a siege ramp against me, and encamp around my tent.

13 He has removed my brothers from me; my acquaintances have abandoned me.

13 “He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.

14 My kinsmen have failed me, and my friends have forgotten me.

14 My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me.

15 My guests and maidservants count me as a stranger; I am a foreigner in their sight.

15 Those who dwell in my house and my maids consider me a stranger. I am an alien in their sight.

16 I call for my servant, but he does not answer, though I implore him with my own mouth.

16 I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer. I beg him with my mouth.

17 My breath is repulsive to my wife, and I am loathsome to my own family.

17 My breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.

18 Even little boys scorn me; when I appear, they deride me.

18 Even young children despise me. If I arise, they speak against me.

19 All my best friends despise me, and those I love have turned against me.

19 All my familiar friends abhor me. They whom I loved have turned against me.

20 My skin and flesh cling to my bones; I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

20 My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

21 Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.

21 “Have pity on me. Have pity on me, you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me.

22 Why do you persecute me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh?

22 Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

23 I wish that my words were recorded and inscribed in a book,

23 “Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

24 by an iron stylus on lead, or chiseled in stone forever.

24 That with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!

25 But I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth.

25 But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.

26 Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.

26 After my skin is destroyed, then I will see God in my flesh,

27 I will see Him for myself; my eyes will behold Him, and not as a stranger. How my heart yearns within me!

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.

28 If you say, ‘Let us persecute him, since the root of the matter lies with him,’

28 If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’ because the root of the matter is found in me,

29 then you should fear the sword yourselves, because wrath brings punishment by the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment.”

29 be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.”