Job 19

Job Feels Insulted

1Then Job [a]responded,

“How long will you torment [b]me
And crush me with words?
“These ten times you have insulted me;
You are not ashamed to wrong me.
“Even if I have truly erred,
My error lodges with me.
“If indeed you vaunt yourselves against me
And prove my disgrace to me,
Know then that God has wronged me
And has closed His net around me.

Everything Is against Him

“Behold, I cry, ‘Violence!’ but I get no answer;
I shout for help, but there is no justice.
“He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass,
And He has put darkness on my paths.
“He has stripped my honor from me
And removed the crown from my head.
10 “He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone;
And He has uprooted my hope like a tree.
11 “He has also kindled His anger against me
And considered me as His enemy.
12 “His troops come together,
And build up their [c]way against me
And camp around my tent.

13 “He has removed my brothers far from me,
And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.
14 “My relatives have failed,
And my intimate friends have forgotten me.
15 “Those who live in my house and my maids consider me a stranger.
I am a foreigner in their sight.
16 “I call to my servant, but he does not answer;
I have to implore him with my mouth.
17 “My breath is [d]offensive to my wife,
And I am loathsome to my own brothers.
18 “Even young children despise me;
I rise up and they speak against me.
19 “All [e]my associates abhor me,
And those I love have turned against me.
20 “My bone clings to my skin and my flesh,
And I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
21 “Pity me, pity me, O you my friends,
For the hand of God has struck me.
22 “Why do you persecute me as God does,
And are not satisfied with my flesh?

Job Says, “My Redeemer Lives”

23 “Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
24 “That with an iron stylus and lead
They were engraved in the rock forever!
25 “As for me, I know that my [f]Redeemer lives,
And [g]at the last He will take His stand on the [h]earth.
26 “Even after my skin [i]is destroyed,
Yet from my flesh I shall see God;
27 Whom I [j]myself shall behold,
And whom my eyes will see and not another.
My [k]heart faints [l]within me!
28 “If you say, ‘How shall we persecute him?’
And ‘[m]What pretext for a case against him can we find?’
29 Then be afraid of the sword for yourselves,
For wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
So that you may know there is judgment.”

Footnotes

  1. Job 19:1 Lit answered and said
  2. Job 19:2 Lit my soul
  3. Job 19:12 I.e. siegework
  4. Job 19:17 Lit strange
  5. Job 19:19 Lit the men of my council
  6. Job 19:25 Or Vindicator, defender; lit kinsman
  7. Job 19:25 Or as the Last
  8. Job 19:25 Lit dust
  9. Job 19:26 Lit which they have cut off
  10. Job 19:27 Or on my side
  11. Job 19:27 Lit kidneys
  12. Job 19:27 Lit in my loins
  13. Job 19:28 Or the root of the matter is found in him