Job

19 Then responded Job and said:—

2 How long will ye grieve my soul? Or crush me with words?

3 These ten times have ye reviled me, Shameless ye wrong me.

4 And even if indeed I have erred With myself lodgeth mine error.

5 If indeed against me ye must needs magnify yourselves, And plead against me my reproach

6 Know then that God hath overthrown me, And within his net enclosed me.

7 Lo! I cry—out Violence! but receive no answer, I cry aloud but there is no vindication;

8 My way hath he walled up that I cannot pass, And upon my paths hath he made darkness rest;

9 My glory—from off me hath he stripped, And hath removed the crown of my head;

10 He hath ruined me on every side and I am gone, And he hath taken away—like a tree—my hope;

11 Yea he hath kindled against me his anger, And accounted me towards him like unto his adversaries;

12 Together enter his troops And have cast up against me their mound, And have encamped all around my tent;

13 My brethren—from beside me hath he moved far away, And mine acquaintance are wholly estranged from me;

14 Failed me have my near of kin, And mine intimate acquaintances have forgotten me;

15 Ye guests of my house and my maidens A stranger have ye accounted me, An alien have I become in their eyes;

16 To mine own servant I called and he would not answer, With mine own mouth I kept entreating him;

17 My breath is strange to my wife, And I am loathsome to the sons of my own mother;

18 Even young children despise me, I rise up and they speak against me;

19 All the men of mine intimate circle abhor me, And these whom I loved have turned against me;

20 Unto my skin and unto my flesh have my bones cleaved, And I have escaped with the skin of my teeth.

21 Pity me! pity me! ye my friends For the hand of God hath stricken me!

22 Wherefore should ye persecute me as God? And with my flesh should not be satisfied?

23 Oh then that my words could be written, Oh that in a record they could be inscribed:

24 That with a stylus of iron and [with] lead For all time—in the rock they could be graven!

25 But I know that my redeemer liveth, And as the Last over [my] dust will he arise;

26 And though after my skin is struck off this [followeth] Yet apart from my flesh shall I see God:

27 Whom I myself shall see on my side, And mine own eyes [shall] have looked upon and not [those of] a stranger. Exhausted are my deepest desires in my bosom!

28 Surely ye should say—Why should we persecute him? Seeing the root of the matter is found in me.

29 Be ye afraid—on your part—of the face of the sword, Because wrath [bringeth] the punishments of the sword, To the end ye may know the Almighty.