Job 19

¹ Job spoke next. He said:

² Will you never stop tormenting me, and shattering me with speeches?

³ Ten times, no less, you have insulted me, ill-treating me without a trace of shame.

⁴ Suppose that I have gone astray, suppose I am even yet in error:

⁵ it is still true, though you think you have the upper hand of me and feel that you have proved my guilt,

⁶ that God, you must know, is my oppressor, and his is the net that closes round me.

⁷ If I protest against such violence, there is no reply; if I appeal against it, judgement is never given.

⁸ He has built a wall across my path which I cannot pass, and covered my way with darkness.

⁹ He has stolen my honour away, and taken the crown from my head.

¹⁰ On every side he breaks through my defences, and I succumb. As a man a shrub, so he uproots my hope.

¹¹ His anger flares against me, and he counts me as his enemy.

¹² His troops have come in force, they have mounted their attack against me, laid siege to my tent.

¹³ My brothers stand aloof from me, and my relations take care to avoid me.

¹⁴ My kindred and my friends have all gone away, and the guests in my house have forgotten me.

¹⁵ The serving maids look on me as a foreigner, a stranger, never seen before.

¹⁶ My servant does not answer when I call him, I am reduced to entreating him.

¹⁷ To my wife my breath is unbearable, for my own brothers I am a thing corrupt.

¹⁸ Even the children look down on me, ever ready with a jibe when I appear.

¹⁹ All my dearest friends recoil from me in horror: those I loved best have turned against me.

²⁰ Beneath my skin, my flesh begins to rot, and my bones stick out like teeth.

²¹ Pity me, pity me, you, my friends, for the hand of God has struck me.

²² Why do you hound me down like God, will you never have enough of my flesh?

²³ Ah, would that these words of mine were written down, inscribed on some monument

²⁴ with iron chisel and engraving tool, cut into the rock for ever.

²⁵ This I know: that my Avenger[*a] lives, and he, the Last, will take his stand on earth.

²⁶ After my awaking, he will set me close to him, and from my flesh I shall look on God.

²⁷ He whom I shall see will take my part: these eyes will gaze on him and find him not aloof. My heart within me sinks…

²⁸ You, then, that mutter, ‘How shall we track him down, what pretext shall we find against him?’

²⁹ may well fear the sword on your own account. There is an anger stirred to flame by evil deeds; you will learn that there is indeed a judgement.