Job 19
Job’s Reply to Bildad1
19:2 “How long will you torment me2
and crush3 me with your words?4
19:3 These ten times5 you have been reproaching me;6
you are not ashamed to attack me!7
19:4 But even if it were8 true that I have erred,9
my error10 remains solely my concern!
19:5 If indeed11 you would exalt yourselves12 above me
and plead my disgrace against me,13
19:6 know14 then that God has wronged me15
and encircled16 me with his net.17
Job’s Abandonment and Affliction
19:7 “If18 I cry out,19 ‘Violence!’20
I receive no answer;21
I cry for help,
but there is no justice.
19:8 He has blocked22 my way so I cannot pass,
and has set darkness23 over my paths.
19:9 He has stripped me of my honor
and has taken the crown off my head.24
19:10 He tears me down25 on every side until I perish;26
he uproots27 my hope28 like one uproots29 a tree.
19:11 Thus30 his anger burns against me,
and he considers me among his enemies.31
19:12 His troops32 advance together;
they throw up33 a siege ramp against me,
and they camp around my tent.
Job’s Forsaken State
19:13 “He has put my relatives34 far from me;
my acquaintances only35 turn away from me.
19:14 My kinsmen have failed me;
my friends36 have forgotten me.37
19:15 My guests38 and my servant girls
consider39 me a stranger;
I am a foreigner40 in their eyes.
19:16 I summon41 my servant, but he does not respond,
even though I implore42 him with my own mouth.
19:17 My breath is repulsive43 to my wife;
I am loathsome44 to my brothers.45
19:18 Even youngsters have scorned me;
when I get up,46 they scoff at me.47
19:19 All my closest friends48 detest me;
and those whom49 I love have turned against me.50
19:20 My bones stick to my skin and my flesh;51
I have escaped52 alive53 with only the skin of my teeth.
19:21 Have pity on me, my friends, have pity on me,
for the hand of God has struck me.
19:22 Why do you pursue me like God does?54
Will you never be satiated with my flesh?55
Job’s Assurance of Vindication
19:23 “O that56 my words were written down,
O that they were written on a scroll,57
19:24 that with an iron chisel and with lead58
they were engraved in a rock forever!
19:25 As for me, I know that my Redeemer59 lives,
and that as the last60
he will stand upon the earth.61
19:26 And after my skin has been destroyed,62
yet in my flesh63 I will see God,64
19:27 whom I will see for myself,65
and whom my own eyes will behold,
and not another.66
My heart67 grows faint within me.68
19:28 If you say, ‘How we will pursue him,
since the root of the trouble is found in him!’69
19:29 Fear the sword yourselves,
for wrath70 brings the punishment71 by the sword,
so that you may know
that there is judgment.”72