Chapter 19
1 Then Job answered ,
2 " How long will you torment me , and crush me with words ?
3 You have reproached me ten times . You aren’t ashamed that you attack me .
4 If it is true that I have erred , my error remains with myself.
5 If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me , and plead against me my reproach ,
6 know now that God has subverted me , and has surrounded me with his net .
7 " Behold , I cry out of wrong , but I am not heard . I cry for help , but there is no justice .
8 He has walled up my way so that I can ’t pass , and has set darkness in my paths .
9 He has stripped me of my glory , and taken the crown from my head .
10 He has broken me down on every side , and I am gone . He has plucked my hope up like a tree .
11 He has also kindled his wrath against me . He counts me among his adversaries .
12 His troops come on together , build a siege ramp against me , and encamp around my tent .
13 " He has put my brothers far from me . My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me .
14 My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me .
15 Those who dwell in my house and my maids consider me a stranger . I am an alien in their sight .
16 I call to my servant , and he gives me no answer . I beg him with my mouth .
17 My breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.
18 Even young children despise me . If I arise , they speak against me .
19 All my familiar friends abhor me . They whom I loved have turned against me .
20 My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh . I have escaped by the skin of my teeth .
21 " Have pity on me . Have pity on me , you my friends , for the hand of God has touched me .
22 Why do you persecute me as God , and are not satisfied with my flesh ?
23 " Oh that my words were now written ! Oh that they were inscribed in a book !
24 That with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever !
25 But as for me , I know that my Redeemer lives . In the end, he will stand upon the earth .
26 After my skin is destroyed , then I will see God in my flesh ,
27 whom I , even I , will see on my side. My eyes will see , and not as a stranger . " My heart is consumed within me .
28 If you say , ‘ How we will persecute him !’ because the root of the matter is found in me ,
29 be afraid of the sword , for wrath brings the punishments of the sword , that you may know there is a judgment ."