Job 19
1 Then Job answered and said,
2 How long will ye vex my soul, and
destroy me with words? only know that the Lord has dealt with me thus.
3 Ye speak against me; ye do not feel
for me, but bear hard upon me. 4 Yea
verily, I have erred in truth, (but the error abides with myself)
4a in having spoken words which it was
not right to speak; and my words err, and are
unseasonable. 5 But alas! for ye
magnify yourselves against me, and insult me with reproach.
6 Know then that it is the Lord that
has troubled me, and has raised his bulwark against
me. 7 Behold, I laugh at reproach; I
will not speak: or I will cry out, but
there is nowhere judgment.
8 I am fenced round about, and can by
no means escape: he has set darkness before my face.
9 And he has stripped me of my glory,
and has taken the crown from my head.
10 He has torn me round about, and I
am gone: and he has cut off my hope like a tree.
11 And he has dreadfully handled me
in anger, and has counted me for an enemy.
12 His troops also came upon me with
one accord, liers in wait compassed my ways.
13 My brethren have stood aloof from
me; they have recognised strangers rather than me:
and my friends have become pitiless.
14 My nearest of kin have not
acknowledged me, and they that knew my name, have forgotten me.
15 As for my
household, and my maid-servants, I was a stranger before them.
16 I called my servant, and he
hearkened not; and my mouth intreated him.
17 And I besought my wife, and
earnestly intreated the sons of my concubines.
18 But they rejected me for ever;
whenever I rise up, they speak against me.
19 They that saw me abhorred me: the
very persons whom I had loved, rose up against me.
20 My flesh is corrupt under my skin,
and my bones are held in my teeth.
21 Pity me, pity me, O friends; for
it is the hand of the Lord that has touched me.
22 Wherefore do ye persecute me as
also the Lord does, and are not satisfied with my
flesh?
23 For oh that my words were written,
and that they were recorded in a book for ever,
24 with an iron pen and lead, or
graven in the rocks! 25 For I know
that he is eternal who is about to deliver me,
26 and to
raise up upon the earth my skin that endures these
sufferings: for these things have been accomplished
to me of the Lord; 27 which I am
conscious of in myself, which mine eye has seen, and not another, but all have
been fulfilled to me in my bosom.
28 But if ye shall also say, What
shall we say before him, and so find the root of the
matter in him? 29 Do ye also beware
of deceit: for wrath will come upon transgressors; and then shall they know
where their substance is.