Job 19

1Then Job answered and spoke,

2How long will you grieve my soul and crush me with words?

3These ten times you have shamed me; you feel no shame in treating me like a stranger.

4Even if I have indeed erred, my error remains with me.

5If indeed you boast against me and argue my shame against me,

6Acknowledge now that God has wronged me and enclosed me in his snare.

7Look, I cry out "Violence!" but receive no answer; I shout, but there is no justice.

8He has enclosed my path so that I cannot pass through, and he has placed darkness upon my paths.

9He has stripped my glory from me and removed the crown from my head.

10He tears me down all around, and I depart; he uproots my hope like a tree.

11His anger burned against me, and he counted me as one of his enemies.

12His troops come as one, cast up their way against me, and encamp around my tent.

13He has distanced my brothers from me, and my acquaintances have completely turned away from me.

14My relatives have deserted me, and my acquaintances have forgotten me.

15Those staying in my house and my maids consider me a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their eyes.

16I call my servant, but he does not answer; with my mouth I entreat him.

17My breath is repugnant to my wife, and my supplications to the sons of my womb.

18Even young children despised me; when I arose, they spoke against me.

19All my close companions detest me, and those I loved have turned against me.

20My bone clings to my skin and my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

21Pity me, pity me, my friends, for the hand of God has touched me.

22Why do you chase me like God, and not have enough from my flesh?

23Who will grant that my words now be written! Who will grant that they be engraved in a book!

24That they be engraved in the rock forever with an iron pen and lead!

25As for me, I know my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand upon the dust.

26After my skin is thus destroyed, from my flesh I will behold God.

27Whom I myself will behold for myself; my eyes will see, and not a stranger, though my reins have been consumed in my bosom.

28If you say, “How shall we persecute him?”, because the root of the matter is found in me.

29Fear the sword for yourselves, for wrath inflicts punishments by the sword, that you may know there is judgment.