Job, 19

¹ Job said in reply:

² “How long will you keep irritating my soul,^*1 Crushing me with words?

³ These ten times you have rebuked^*1 me; You are not ashamed to deal harshly with me.

⁴ And if indeed I made a mistake, My error remains with me.

⁵ If you insist on exalting yourselves over me, Claiming that the reproach against me is justified,

⁶ Know, then, that it is God who has misled me, And he has caught me in his hunting net.

⁷ Look! I keep crying out, ‘Violence!’ but I get no answer; I keep crying for help, but there is no justice.

⁸ My path he has blocked with a stone wall, and I cannot pass by; He has covered my roadways with darkness.

⁹ He has stripped me of my glory And removed the crown from my head.

¹⁰ He breaks me down on all sides until I perish; My hope he uproots like a tree.

¹¹ His anger burns against me, And he views me as his enemy.

¹² His troops come together and besiege me, And they camp around my tent.

¹³ My own brothers he has driven far away from me, And those who know me have turned away from me.

¹⁴ My close companions^*1 are gone, And those whom I knew well have forgotten me.

¹⁵ Guests in my house and my slave girls consider me a stranger; I am a foreigner in their eyes.

¹⁶ I call for my servant, but he does not respond; With my mouth I beg him for compassion.

¹⁷ My very breath has become loathsome to my wife, And I am a stench to my own brothers.^*1

¹⁸ Even young children despise me; When I rise up, they begin jeering at me.

¹⁹ All my close friends detest me, And those whom I loved have turned against me.

²⁰ My bones stick to my skin and my flesh, And I escape with the skin of my teeth.

²¹ Show me mercy, my companions, show me mercy, For God’s own hand has touched me.

²² Why do you keep persecuting me as God does, Attacking me without letup?^*1

²³ If only my words were written down, If only they could be inscribed in a book!

²⁴ O that they were carved forever in the rock, With an iron stylus and lead!

²⁵ For I well know that my redeemer^*1 is alive; He will come later and rise up over the earth.^*2

²⁶ After my skin has thus been destroyed, While yet in my flesh, I will see God,

²⁷ Whom I will see for myself, Whom my own eyes will see, not someone else’s. But deep inside I feel overwhelmed!^*1

²⁸ For you say, ‘In what way are we persecuting him?’ Since the root of the problem is with me.

²⁹ Be in fear of the sword yourselves, For the sword brings punishment against errors; You should know that there is a judge.”