Job Chapter 19

1 Job answered:

                  2 “How long are you going to torment me

                        and shatter me with a barrage of words?

                  3 You’ve insulted me ten times over;

                        aren’t you ashamed of treating me wrong?

                  4 Even if I did make mistakes,

                        that’s on me.

                  5 If you’re acting superior to me

                              and using my humiliation to argue against me,

                        6 know that God is the One that’s put me in the wrong

                              and closed his net around me.                       

Job 19:1-6

                  7 “I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I don’t get an answer;

                        I call for help, but justice doesn’t come.

                  8 He has blocked my way so I can’t go on;

                        he’s darkened my path.

                  9 He has stripped me of my honor

                        and taken off my crown.

                  10 He has destroyed me on every side; I’m finished;

                        he’s uprooted my hope like a tree.

                  11 He has flashed his anger at me

                        and considered me his enemy.

                  12 His troops have come at me in force;

                        they’ve camped around my tent

                        and thrown siege works up against me.              

Job 19:7-12

                  13 “He has taken my brothers away from me;

                        my acquaintances are alienated.

                  14 My relatives are gone;

                        my friends have forgotten me.

                  15 The ones who live in my house

                                    consider me a stranger;

                              I’m a foreigner to my maids.

                  16 When I call to my servant, he doesn’t answer me;

                        I have to beg him.

                  17 My breath is repulsive to my wife;

                        my own brothers detest me.

                  18 Even kids despise me

                        and contradict me when I stand up.

                  19 My associates abhor me;

                        the ones I love have turned against me.              

Job 19:13-19

                  20 I’m skin and bones;

                        my skin is sloughing off;

                        my teeth are coming loose.

                  21 Show me some mercy, friends;

                        God’s hand has struck me.

                  22 Do you have to harass me like he does?

Haven’t you chewed on me enough?                    Job 19:20-22

                  23 “Oh that my words were written down,

                        inscribed in a scroll!

                  24 Oh that they were engraved permanently on a rock

                        with an iron chisel and inlaid with lead!

                  25 I know my Redeemer’s alive,

                        and in the end he’ll stand on the earth.

                  26 Even after my skin decays,

                        without my body I’ll see God.

                  27 I’ll see him myself;

                        the thought of that overwhelms me.

                  28 If you say, ‘Can we find a way to harass him?’

                              What pretext can we use for a case against him?’

                        29 fear the sword

                              because wrath punishes with a sword;

                              you’ll find out there’s a judgment!”              

Job 19:23-29

From the CYV translation by Virgil Warren, PhD