Job 19

1Job said in reply:

2How long will you grieve my spirit,And crush me with words?

3Time and again you humiliate me,And are not ashamed to abuse me.

4If indeed I have erred,My error remains with me.

5Though you are overbearing toward me,Reproaching me with my disgrace,

6Yet know that God has wronged me,And has thrown up siege works around me.

7I cry, “Violence!” but am not answered;I shout, but can get no justice.

8My way has been barred; I cannot pass;Darkness has been laid upon my path.

9My glory has been stripped from me,The crown removed from my head.

10[God] tears down every part of me; I perish;My hopes are uprooted like a tree.

11God’s anger is kindled against me;I am regarded as a foe.

12Heavenly troops advance together;They build their road toward meAnd encamp around my tent.

13My kin have been alienated from me;My acquaintances disown me.

14My relatives are gone;My friends have forgotten me.

15My dependents and maidservants regard me as a stranger;I am an outsider to them.

16I summon my servant but he does not respond;I must myself entreat him.

17My odor is repulsive to my wife;I am loathsome to my children.

18Even youngsters disdain me;When I rise, they speak against me.

19All my bosom friends detest me;Those I love have turned against me.

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

21Pity me, pity me! You are my friends;For the hand of God has struck me!

22Why do you pursue me like God,Maligning me insatiably?

23O that my words were written down;Would they were inscribed in a record,

24Incised on a rock foreverWith iron stylus and lead!

25But I know that my Vindicator lives,And in the end will testify on earth—

26This, after my skin will have been peeled off.But I would behold God while still in my flesh,

27I myself, not another, would do so;Would see with my own eyes:My heart pines within me.

28You say, “How do we persecute him?The root of the matter is in him.”

29Be in fear of the sword,For [your] fury is iniquity worthy of the sword;Know there is a judgment!