Job 19

Job Trusts in His Redeemer

19Then Job answered and said:

²“How long will you torment my soul,

And break me in pieces with words?

³These ten times you have ¹reproached me;

You are not ashamed that you ²have wronged me.

⁴And if indeed I have erred,

My error remains with me.

⁵If indeed you ^aexalt yourselves against me,

And plead my disgrace against me,

⁶Know then that ^bGod has wronged me,

And has surrounded me with His net.

⁷“If I cry out concerning ³wrong, I am not heard.

If I cry aloud, there is no justice.

^8cHe has ⁴fenced up my way, so that I cannot pass;

And He has set darkness in my paths.

^9dHe has stripped me of my glory,

And taken the crown from my head.

¹⁰He breaks me down on every side,

And I am gone;

My ^ehope He has uprooted like a tree.

¹¹He has also kindled His wrath against me,

And ^fHe counts me as one of His enemies.

¹²His troops come together

And build up their road against me;

They encamp all around my tent.

¹³“He ^ghas removed my brothers far from me,

And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.

¹⁴My relatives have failed,

And my close friends have forgotten me.

¹⁵Those who dwell in my house, and my maidservants,

Count me as a stranger;

I am an alien in their sight.

¹⁶I call my servant, but he gives no answer;

I beg him with my mouth.

¹⁷My breath is offensive to my wife,

And I am ⁵repulsive to the children of my own body.

¹⁸Even ^hyoung children despise me;

I arise, and they speak against me.

¹⁹ⁱAll my close friends abhor me,

And those whom I love have turned against me.

^20jMy bone clings to my skin and to my flesh,

And I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

²¹“Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends,

For the hand of God has struck me!

²²Why do you ^kpersecute me as God does,

And are not satisfied with my flesh?

²³“Oh, that my words were written!

Oh, that they were inscribed in a book!

²⁴That they were engraved on a rock

With an iron pen and lead, forever!

²⁵For I know that my Redeemer lives,

And He shall stand at last on the earth;

²⁶And after my skin is ⁶destroyed, this I know,

That ^lin my flesh I shall see God,

²⁷Whom I shall see for myself,

And my eyes shall behold, and not another.

How my ⁷heart yearns within me!

²⁸If you should say, ‘How shall we persecute him?’—

Since the root of the matter is found in me,

²⁹Be afraid of the sword for yourselves;

For wrath brings the punishment of the sword,

That you may know there is a judgment.”