Chapter 19

Job Feels Insulted

1 Then Job 1responded,

2 “How long will you torment 1me

And crush me with words?

3 “These ten times you have insulted me;

You are not ashamed to wrong me.

4 “Even if I have truly erred,

My error lodges with me.

5 “If indeed you avaunt yourselves against me

And prove my disgrace to me,

6 Know then that aGod has wronged me

And has closed bHis net around me.

Everything Is against Him

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

I shout for help, but there is no justice.

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

And He has put bdarkness on my paths.

9 “He has astripped my honor from me

And removed the bcrown from my head.

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

And He has uprooted my bhope clike a tree.

11 “He has also akindled His anger against me

And bconsidered me as His enemy.

12 “His atroops come together,

And bbuild up their 1way against me

And camp around my tent.

13 “He has aremoved my brothers far from me,

And my bacquaintances are completely estranged from me.

14 “My relatives have failed,

And my aintimate friends have forgotten me.

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

I am a foreigner in their sight.

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

I have to implore him with my mouth.

17 “My breath is 1offensive to my wife,

And I am loathsome to my own brothers.

18 “Even young children despise me;

I rise up and they speak against me.

19 “All 1my aassociates abhor me,

And those I love have turned against me.

20 “My abone clings to my skin and my flesh,

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

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

For the ahand of God has struck me.

22 “Why do you apersecute me as God does,

And are not satisfied with my flesh?

Job Says, “My Redeemer Lives”

23 “Oh that my words were written!

Oh that they were ainscribed in a book!

24 “That with an iron stylus and lead

They were engraved in the rock forever!

25 “As for me, I know that amy 1Redeemer lives,

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

26 “Even after my skin 1is destroyed,

Yet from my flesh I shall asee God;

27 Whom I 1myself shall behold,

And whom my eyes will see and not another.

My 2heart afaints 3within me!

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

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

29 “Then be afraid of athe sword for yourselves,

For wrath brings the punishment of the sword,

So that you may know bthere is judgment.”