Job 19

¹ Then Job answered and said,

² How long will ye vex my soul, And break me in pieces with words?

³ These ten times have ye reproached me: Ye are not ashamed that ye deal hardly with me.

⁴ And be it indeed that I have erred, Mine error remaineth with myself.

⁵ If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, And plead against me my reproach;

⁶ Know now that God hath subverted me in my cause, And hath compassed me with his net.

⁷ Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry for help, but there is no justice.

⁸ He hath walled up my way that I cannot pass, And hath set darkness in my paths.

⁹ He hath stripped me of my glory, And taken the crown from my head.

¹⁰ He hath broken me down on every side, and I am gone; And my hope hath he plucked up like a tree.

¹¹ He hath also kindled his wrath against me, And he counteth me unto him as one of his adversaries.

¹² His troops come on together, And cast up their way against me, And encamp round about my tent.

¹³ He hath put my brethren far from me, And mine acquaintance are wholly estranged from me.

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

¹⁵ They that dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.

¹⁶ I call unto my servant, and he giveth me no answer, Though I entreat him with my mouth.

¹⁷ My breath is strange to my wife, And my supplication to the children of mine own mother.

¹⁸ Even young children despise me; If I arise, they speak against me.

¹⁹ All my familiar friends abhor me, And they whom I loved are turned against me.

²⁰ My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, And I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

²¹ Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; For the hand of God hath touched me.

²² Why do ye persecute me as God, And are not satisfied with my flesh?

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

²⁴ That with an iron pen and lead They were graven in the rock for ever!

²⁵ But as for me I know that my Redeemer liveth, And at last he will stand up upon the earth:

²⁶ And after my skin, even this body, is destroyed, Then without my flesh shall I see God;

²⁷ Whom I, even I, shall see, on my side, And mine eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger. My heart is consumed within me.

²⁸ If ye say, How we will persecute him! And that the root of the matter is found in me;

²⁹ Be ye afraid of the sword: For wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, That ye may know there is a judgment.