19
1 Then Job answered,
2 “How
long will you
torment me,
and crush me
with words?
3 You
have reproached me
ten times.
You aren’t ashamed
that you attack me.
4 If it is true
that I have erred,
my error remains
with myself.
5 If indeed
you will magnify
yourselves against
me,
and plead against
me my reproach,
6 know
now that God
has subverted me,
and has
surrounded me with
his net.
7 “Behold,
I cry out
of wrong, but
I am not
heard.
I cry for
help, but there is
no justice.
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 glory,
and 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.
11 He
has also kindled
his wrath against
me.
He counts me
among his
adversaries.
12 His
troops come on
together,
build a siege ramp
against me,
and encamp around
my tent.
13 “He
has put my brothers
far from me.
My acquaintances
are wholly estranged
from me.
14 My
relatives have gone away.
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.
16 I
call to my
servant, and he
gives me no
answer.
I beg him with
my mouth.
17 My breath
is offensive to my
wife.
I am loathsome to
the children of my
own mother.
18 Even
young children
despise me.
If I arise, they
speak against me.
19 All
my familiar friends
abhor me.
They whom I loved
have turned
against me.
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.
Have pity on
me, you my
friends,
for the hand
of God has
touched me.
22 Why
do you persecute
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!
24 That with an
iron pen and
lead
they were engraved
in the rock
forever!
25 But
as for me,
I know that
my Redeemer lives.
In the end, he
will stand upon
the earth.
26 After my
skin is destroyed,
then I will
see God in my
flesh,
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, ‘How
we will persecute
him!’
because the root
of the matter
is found in
me,
29 be
afraid of the
sword,
for wrath brings
the punishments of
the sword,
that you may
know there is
a judgment.”