1Job replied,2‘How long will you people make me suffer? How long will you crush me with your words?3You have already accused me many times. You have attacked me without feeling any shame.4Suppose it’s true that I’ve gone down the wrong path. Then it’s my concern, not yours.5Suppose you want to place yourselves above me. Suppose you want to use my shame to prove I’m wrong.6Then I want you to know that God hasn’t treated me right. In fact, he has captured me in his net.7‘I cry out, “Someone harmed me!” But I don’t get any reply. I call out for help. But I’m not treated fairly.8God has blocked my way, and I can’t get through. He has made my paths so dark I can’t see where I’m going.9He has taken my wealth away from me. He has stripped me of my honour.10He tears me down on every side until I’m gone. He pulls up the roots of my hope as if I were a tree.11His anger burns against me. He thinks I’m one of his enemies.12His troops march towards me in force. They come at me from every direction. They camp around my tent.13‘God has caused my family to desert me. The people I used to know are now strangers to me.14My relatives have gone away. My closest friends have forgotten me.15My guests and my female servants think of me as a stranger. They look at me as if I were an outsider.16I send for my servant, but he doesn’t answer. He doesn’t come, even though I beg him to.17My wife can’t stand the way my breath smells. My own family won’t have anything to do with me.18Even little children mock me. When I appear, they make fun of me.19All my close friends hate me. Those I love have turned against me.20I’m nothing but skin and bones. I’ve barely escaped death.21‘Have pity on me, my friends! Please have pity! God has struck me down with his powerful hand.22Why do you chase after me as he does? Aren’t you satisfied with what you have done to me already?23‘I wish my words were written down! I wish they were written in a book!24I wish they were cut into lead with an iron tool! I wish they were carved in rock for ever!25I know that my redeemer lives. In the end he will stand on the earth.26Though my skin will be destroyed, in my body I’ll see God.27I myself will see him with my own eyes. I’ll see him, and he won’t be a stranger to me. How my heart longs for that day!28‘You might say, “Let’s keep bothering Job. After all, he’s the cause of all his suffering.”29But you should be afraid when God comes to judge you. He’ll be angry. He’ll punish you with his sword. Then you will know that he is the Judge.’
Job 19
English Standard Version
Job Replies: My Redeemer Lives
1Then Job answered and said:2“How long will you torment me and break me in pieces with words?3These ten times you have cast reproach upon me; are you not ashamed to wrong me? (Ge 31:7)4And even if it be true that I have erred, my error remains with myself.5If indeed you magnify yourselves against me and make my disgrace an argument against me, (Ps 35:26; Ps 38:16; Ps 55:12)6know then that God has put me in the wrong and closed his net about me. (Job 8:3; Job 34:12; La 3:36)7Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered; I call for help, but there is no justice. (Job 24:12; La 3:8; Hab 1:2)8He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness upon my paths. (Job 3:23; Job 13:27; La 3:7; La 3:9; Ho 2:6)9He has stripped from me my glory and taken the crown from my head. (Job 29:14; Ps 89:39; Ps 89:44; La 5:16)10He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, and my hope has he pulled up like a tree. (Job 10:21; Job 14:20; Job 27:21)11He has kindled his wrath against me and counts me as his adversary. (Job 13:24)12His troops come on together; they have cast up their siege ramp[1] against me and encamp around my tent. (Job 10:17; Job 25:2; Job 30:12)13“He has put my brothers far from me, and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me. (Job 6:15; Ps 31:11; Ps 69:8; Ps 88:8; Ps 88:18)14My relatives have failed me, my close friends have forgotten me. (Ps 38:11; Ps 55:13)15The guests in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their eyes. (Ge 17:27; Mt 10:36)16I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.17My breath is strange to my wife, and I am a stench to the children of my own mother. (Job 2:9; Job 3:10)18Even young children despise me; when I rise they talk against me. (2Ki 2:23)19All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me. (Ps 41:9; Ps 55:13)20My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth. (Ps 102:5; La 4:8)21Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me! (Job 1:11; Isa 53:4)22Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh? (Ps 69:26)23“Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! (Isa 30:8)24Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! (Jer 17:1)25For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.[2] (Ge 48:16; Job 30:23; Job 41:33; Ps 19:14; Ps 103:4; Isa 43:14; Isa 44:6; Isa 44:24; Isa 49:7; 1Th 1:10)26And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in[3] my flesh I shall see God, (Ps 17:15; 1Co 13:12; 1Jo 3:2)27whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! (Ps 73:26; Pr 27:2)28If you say, ‘How we will pursue him!’ and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’[4] (Job 19:22)29be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.” (Ps 58:11; Ec 12:14)