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 judgment.

⁸ He hath fenced 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 mine 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 mine 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 my mother’s womb.

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

¹⁹ All my inward 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 I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand up at the last upon the earth:

²⁶ And after my skin hath been thus destroyed, yet from my flesh shall I see God:

²⁷ Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another. My reins are consumed within me.

²⁸ If ye say, How we will persecute him! seeing 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.