Job 19

1. And Job answered and said,

2. “How long will you torment my soul and break me in pieces with words?

3. These ten times you have blamed me; yet you are not ashamed that you have wronged me.

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

5. If indeed you magnify yourself against me, and plead my reproach against me,

6. Know now that God has overthrown me, and His net has closed upon me.

7. Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered; I cry aloud, but there is no justice.

8. He has fenced up my way so that I cannot pass, and He has set darkness in my paths.

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

10. He has broken me on every side, and I am gone, and He has uprooted my hope like a tree.

11. He has also kindled His wrath against me, and to Himself He counts me as His enemy.

12. His troops come together and cast up their way against me, and camp around my tent.

13. He has put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.

14. My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.

15. Those who dwell in my house, and my maidservants, count me as a stranger; I am a foreigner in their sight.

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

17. My breath is abhorred by my wife, and I am loathsome to the children of my body.

18. Yea, even young children despise me; I arise, and they speak against me.

19. All my intimate friends abhor me, and those I have loved have turned against me.

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

21. Have pity on me! Have pity on me, my friends! For the hand of God has struck me.

22. Why do you persecute me, like God is doing, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

23. Oh, that my words were now written! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book!

24. Oh, that they were cut with an iron pen and lead and engraved in the rock forever!

25. For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that He shall stand upon the earth in the latter days;

26. And though worms destroy my skin and body, yet apart from my flesh shall I see God—

27. Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another; though my heart be consumed within me.

28. For you ought to say, ‘How shall we persecute him?’ since the root of the matter is found in me.

29. Fear for yourselves because of the sword; for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment.”