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19. Job Replies

    ² “How long will you torment me
   and crush me with words?
³ Ten times now you have reproached me;
   shamelessly you attack me.
⁴ If it is true that I have gone astray,
   my error remains my concern alone.
⁵ If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me
   and use my humiliation against me,
⁶ then know that God has wronged me
   and drawn his net around me.

    ⁷ “Though I cry, ‘Violence!’ I get no response;
   though I call for help, there is no justice.
⁸ He has blocked my way so I cannot pass;
   he has shrouded my paths in darkness.
⁹ He has stripped me of my honor
   and removed the crown from my head.
¹⁰ He tears me down on every side till I am gone;
   he uproots my hope like a tree.
¹¹ His anger burns against me;
   he counts me among his enemies.
¹² His troops advance in force;
   they build a siege ramp against me
   and encamp around my tent.

    ¹³ “He has alienated my family from me;
   my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.
¹⁴ My relatives have gone away;
   my closest friends have forgotten me.
¹⁵ My guests and my female servants count me a foreigner;
   they look on me as on a stranger.
¹⁶ I summon my servant, but he does not answer,
   though I beg him with my own mouth.
¹⁷ My breath is offensive to my wife;
   I am loathsome to my own family.
¹⁸ Even the little boys scorn me;
   when I appear, they ridicule me.
¹⁹ All my intimate friends detest me;
   those I love have turned against me.
²⁰ I am nothing but skin and bones;
   I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth. Or only by my gums

    ²¹ “Have pity on me, my friends, have pity,
   for the hand of God has struck me.
²² Why do you pursue me as God does?
   Will you never get enough of my flesh?

    ²³ “Oh, that my words were recorded,
   that they were written on a scroll,
²⁴ that they were inscribed with an iron tool on Or and lead,
   or engraved in rock forever!
²⁵ I know that my redeemer Or vindicator lives,
   and that in the end he will stand on the earth. Or on my grave
²⁶ And after my skin has been destroyed,
   yet Or And after I awake, / though this body has been destroyed, / then in Or destroyed, / apart from my flesh I will see God;
²⁷ I myself will see him
   with my own eyes—I, and not another.
   How my heart yearns within me!

    ²⁸ “If you say, ‘How we will hound him,
   since the root of the trouble lies in him, Many Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint and Vulgate; most Hebrew manuscripts me’
²⁹ you should fear the sword yourselves;
   for wrath will bring punishment by the sword,
   and then you will know that there is judgment. Or sword, / that you may come to know the Almighty”