Job 19

Chapter 19

¹And Job answered and said, ²How long will ye vex my soul, and crush me with words? ³These ten times have ye reproached me; ye are not ashamed to stupefy me. ⁴And be it that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself. ⁵If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and prove against me my reproach, ⁶Know now that †God hath overthrown me, and hath surrounded me with his net. ⁷Behold, I cry out of wrong, and I am not heard; I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.

⁸He hath hedged up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths. ⁹He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. ¹⁰He breaketh me down on every side, and I am gone; and my hope hath he torn up as a tree. ¹¹And he hath kindled his anger against me, and hath counted me unto him as one of his enemies. ¹²His troops have come together and cast up their way against me, and have encamped round about my tent. ¹³He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are quite estranged from me. ¹⁴My kinsfolk have failed, and my known friends have forgotten me. ¹⁵The sojourners in my house and my maids count me as a stranger; I am an alien in their sight. ¹⁶I called my servant, and he answered not; I entreated him with my mouth. ¹⁷My breath is strange to my wife, and my entreaties to the children of my mother’s womb. ¹⁸Even young children despise me; I rise up, and they speak against me. ¹⁹All my intimate friends abhor me, and they whom I loved are turned against me. ²⁰My bones cleave to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth. ²¹Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, ye my friends; for the hand of †God hath touched me. ²²Why do ye persecute me as •God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

²³Oh would that my words were written! oh that they were inscribed in a book! ²⁴That with an iron style and lead they were graven in the rock for ever! ²⁵And as for me, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and the Last, he shall stand upon the earth; ²⁶And if after my skin this shall be destroyed, yet from out of my flesh shall I see †God; ²⁷Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another: —my reins are consumed within me. ²⁸If ye say, How shall we persecute him? when the root of the matter is found in me, ²⁹Be ye yourselves afraid of the sword! for the sword is fury against misdeeds, that ye may know there is a judgment.