Job 19

1Then Job answered, and said:

1And Job made answer and said,

2How long do you afflict my soul, and break me in pieces with words?

2How long will you make my life bitter, crushing me with words?

3Behold, these ten times you confound me, and are not ashamed to oppress me.

3Ten times now you have made sport of me; it gives you no sense of shame to do me wrong.

4For if I have been ignorant, my ignorance shall be with me.

4And, truly, if I have been in error, the effect of my error is only on myself.

5But you set yourselves up against me, and reprove me with my reproaches.

5If you make yourselves great against me, using my punishment as an argument against me,

6At least now understand, that God hath not afflicted me with an equal judgment, and compassed me with his scourges.

6Be certain that it is God who has done me wrong, and has taken me in his net.

7Behold I shall cry suffering violence, and no one will hear: I shall cry aloud, and there is none to judge.

7Truly, I make an outcry against the violent man, but there is no answer: I give a cry for help, but no one takes up my cause.

8He hath hedged in my path round about, and I cannot pass, and in my way he hath set darkness.

8My way is walled up by him so that I may not go by: he has made my roads dark.

9He hath stripped me of my glory, and hath taken the crown from my head.

9He has put off my glory from me, and taken the crown from my head.

10He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am lost, and he hath taken away my hope, as from a tree that is plucked up.

10I am broken down by him on every side, and I am gone; my hope is uprooted like a tree.

11His wrath is kindled against me, and he hath counted me as his enemy.

11His wrath is burning against me, and I am to him as one of his haters.

12His troops have come together, and have made themselves a way by me, and have besieged my tabernacle round about.

12His armies come on together, they make their road high against me, and put up their tents round mine.

13He hath put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintance like strangers have departed from me.

13He has taken my brothers far away from me; they have seen my fate and have become strange to me.

14My kinsmen have forsaken me, and they that knew me, have forgotten me.

14My relations and my near friends have given me up, and those living in my house have put me out of their minds.

15They that dwell in my house, and my maidservants have counted me as a stranger, and I have been like an alien in their eyes.

15I am strange to my women-servants, and seem to them as one from another country.

16I called my servant, and he gave me no answer, I entreated him with my own mouth.

16At my cry my servant gives me no answer, and I have to make a prayer to him.

17My wife hath abhorred my breath, and I entreated the children of my womb.

17My breath is strange to my wife, and I am disgusting to the offspring of my mother's body.

18Even fools despised me, and when I was gone from them, they spoke against me.

18Even young children have no respect for me; when I get up their backs are turned on me.

19They that were sometime my counsellors, have abhorred me: and he whom I loved most is turned against me.

19All the men of my circle keep away from me; and those dear to me are turned against me.

20The flesh being consumed, my bone hath cleaved to my skin, and nothing but lips are left about my teeth.

20My bones are joined to my skin, and I have got away with my flesh in my teeth.

21Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least you my friends, because the hand of the Lord hath touched me.

21Have pity on me, have pity on me, O my friends! for the hand of God is on me.

22Why do you persecute me as God, and glut yourselves with my flesh?

22Why are you cruel to me, like God, for ever saying evil against me?

23Who will grant me that my words may be written? who will grant me that they may be marked down in a book?

23If only my words might be recorded! if they might be put in writing in a book!

24With an iron pen and in a plate of lead, or else be graven with an instrument in flint stone?

24And with an iron pen and lead be cut into the rock for ever!

25For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth.

25But I am certain that he who will take up my cause is living, and that in time to come he will take his place on the dust;

26And I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see my God.

26And ... without my flesh I will see God;

27Whom I myself shall see, and my eyes shall behold, and not another: this my hope is laid up in my bosom.

27Whom I will see on my side, and not as one strange to me. My heart is broken with desire.

28Why then do you say now: Let us persecute him, and let us find occasion of word against him?

28If you say, How cruel we will be to him! because the root of sin is clearly in him:

29Flee then from the face of the sword, for the sword is the revenger of iniquities: and know ye that there is a judgment.

29Be in fear of the sword, for the sword is the punishment for such things, so that you may be certain that there is a judge.