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 make yourselves strange to me.s4 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 overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.7 Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.s
8 He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.9 He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.10 He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.11 He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.12 His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.13 He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily 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 called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.17 My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's sake of mine own body.s18 Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.s19 All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.s20 My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.s21 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 printed in a book!s24 That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:s27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.sss28 But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?s29 Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.
Job 19
Job Answers Bildad
1-6 I Call for Help and No One Bothers Job answered: "How long are you going to keep battering away at me, pounding me with these harangues? Time after time after time you jump all over me. Do you have no conscience, abusing me like this? Even if I have, somehow or other, gotten off the track, what business is that of yours? Why do you insist on putting me down, using my troubles as a stick to beat me? Tell it to God—he's the one behind all this, he's the one who dragged me into this mess.
7-12 "Look at me—I shout 'Murder!' and I'm ignored; I call for help and no one bothers to stop. God threw a barricade across my path—I'm stymied; he turned out all the lights—I'm stuck in the dark. He destroyed my reputation, robbed me of all self-respect. He tore me apart piece by piece—I'm ruined! Then he yanked out hope by the roots. He's angry with me—oh, how he's angry! He treats me like his worst enemy. He has launched a major campaign against me, using every weapon he can think of, coming at me from all sides at once.
I Know That God Lives
13-20 "God alienated my family from me; everyone who knows me avoids me. My relatives and friends have all left; houseguests forget I ever existed. The servant girls treat me like a bum off the street, look at me like they've never seen me before. I call my attendant and he ignores me, ignores me even though I plead with him. My wife can't stand to be around me anymore. I'm repulsive to my family. Even street urchins despise me; when I come out, they taunt and jeer. Everyone I've ever been close to abhors me; my dearest loved ones reject me. I'm nothing but a bag of bones; my life hangs by a thread.
21-22 "Oh, friends, dear friends, take pity on me. God has come down hard on me! Do you have to be hard on me, too? Don't you ever tire of abusing me?
23-27 "If only my words were written in a book— better yet, chiseled in stone! Still, I know that God lives—the One who gives me back my life— and eventually he'll take his stand on earth. And I'll see him—even though I get skinned alive!— see God myself, with my very own eyes. Oh, how I long for that day!
28-29 "If you're thinking, 'How can we get through to him, get him to see that his trouble is all his own fault?' Forget it. Start worrying about yourselves. Worry about your own sins and God's coming judgment, for judgment is most certainly on the way."
