Job 19

1Then Job answered and said,

2How long will ye vex my soul, and destroy me with words? only know that the Lord has dealt with me thus.

3Ye speak against me; ye do not feel for me, but bear hard upon me.

4Yea verily, I have erred in truth, (but the error abides with myself) in having spoken words which it was not right [to speak]; and my words err, and are unseasonable.

5But alas! for ye magnify yourselves against me, and insult me with reproach.

6Know then that it is the Lord that has troubled [me], and has raised his bulwark against me.

7Behold, I laugh at reproach; I will not speak: [or] I will cry out, but [there is] nowhere judgment.

8I am fenced round about, and can by no means escape: he has set darkness before my face.

9And he has stripped me of my glory, and has taken the crown from my head.

10He has torn me round about, and I am gone: and he has cut off my hope like a tree.

11And he has dreadfully handled me in anger, and has counted me for an enemy.

12His troops also came upon me with one accord, liers in wait compassed my ways.

13My brethren have stood aloof from me; they have recognised strangers [rather] than me: and my friends have become pitiless.

14My 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.

16I called my servant, and he hearkened not; and my mouth intreated [him].

17And I besought my wife, and earnestly intreated the sons of my concubines.

18But they rejected me for ever; whenever I rise up, they speak against me.

19They that saw me abhorred me: the very persons whom I had loved, rose up against me.

20My flesh is corrupt under my skin, and my bones are held in [my] teeth.

21Pity me, pity me, O friends; for it is the hand of the Lord that has touched me.

22Wherefore do ye persecute me as also the Lord [does], and are not satisfied with my flesh?

23For oh that my words were written, and that they were recorded in a book for ever,

24with an iron pen and lead, or graven in the rocks!

25For 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;

27which I am conscious of in myself, which mine eye has seen, and not another, but all have been fulfilled to me in [my] bosom.

28But if ye shall also say, What shall we say before him, and [so] find the root of the matter in him?

29Do ye also beware of deceit: for wrath will come upon transgressors; and then shall they know where their substance is.