JobChapter 19
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1Then Job answered: 2"How long will you hurt me?
How long will you crush me with your words? 3Ten times now you have put me to shame.
You treat me badly and aren't even ashamed. 4Even if I really have gone the wrong way,
my mistake is my own business. 5If you really want to lift yourselves above me
and use my shame against me, 6then understand this: God is the one who has wronged me.
He has pulled his net around me. 7I cry out, 'Violence!' but I get no answer.
I call for help, but there is no justice. 8He has blocked my way so I can't get through.
He has covered my paths with darkness. 9He has stripped away my honor.
He has taken the crown off my head. 10He tears me down on every side until I am gone.
He pulls up my hope like a tree. 11His anger burns against me.
He counts me as one of his enemies. 12His troops march forward together.
They build a ramp to attack me.
They camp around my tent. 13He has taken my brothers far away from me.
People I know have left me. 14My relatives have let me down.
My friends have forgotten me. 15My guests and my female servants think of me as a stranger.
To them I am a foreigner. 16I call my servant, but he doesn't answer.
I even have to beg him with my own mouth. 17My breath is sickening to my wife.
My own family finds me disgusting. 18Even little boys look down on me.
When I show up, they make fun of me. 19All my closest friends hate me.
The people I love have turned against me. 20My skin and flesh cling to my bones.
I have escaped by the skin of my teeth. 21Have pity on me, my friends! Have pity!
For the hand of God has struck me. 22Why do you chase after me like God does?
Will you never get enough of my flesh? 23I wish my words were written down!
I wish they were written in a book! 24I wish they were cut into lead with an iron tool,
or carved in stone forever! 25But I know that my Redeemer lives.
In the end he will stand on the earth. 26Even after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God. 27I will see him for myself.
My own eyes will look at him, and not as a stranger.
How my heart longs for that inside me! 28If you say, 'Let's keep chasing after him,
since the root of the trouble is in him,' 29then you should be afraid of the sword yourselves.
For anger brings punishment by the sword,
so that you may know there is a judgment."