Job, 19

1. Then Job answered and said,

1. Job answered:

2. How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?

2. How long will you vex me, crush me with your words?

3. These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed [that] ye make yourselves strange to me.

3. Ten times now you have reviled me, you have attacked me shamelessly.

4. And be it indeed [that] I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.

4. If indeed I am at fault, I alone am concerned with it.

5. If indeed ye will magnify [yourselves] against me, and plead against me my reproach:

5. If you want to gloat over me and use my humiliation as argument,

6. Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.

6. know then that God has treated me unfairly and surrounded me with torment.

7. Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but [there is] no judgment.

7. Though I cry injustice I am not heard; though I call for help it is in vain.

8. He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.

8. He has blocked my way to prevent me from passing; he has shrouded my path and made it dark.

9. He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown [from] my head.

9. He has stripped me of honor, and removed 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.

10. On every side he tears me down and uproots my hope till it is gone.

11. He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as [one of] his enemies.

11. He directs his anger against me and counts me as his enemy.

12. His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.

12. Against me his troops build a siege ramp, and around my tent they encamp.

13. He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.

13. He has distanced me from my brothers, completely estranged me from my friends.

14. My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.

14. My kinsfolk and companions have gone away; my guests have forsaken me,

15. They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.

15. my maidservants count me as an alien as if they had never known me

16. I called my servant, and he gave [me] no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.

16. I summon my servant, but he does not answer, even when I plead with him.

17. My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's [sake] of mine own body.

17. To my wife my breath is offensive; to my own brothers I am loathsome.

18. Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.

18. Even little children ridicule me: Come! let us make fun of him!

19. All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.

19. All my intimate friends detest me; those I love have turned against me.

20. My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

20. I have become skin and bone and have escaped with only my gums.

21. Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.

21. Have pity my friends, have pity, for God's hand has struck me!

22. Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

22. Why do you hound me as God does? Will you never have enough of my flesh?

23. Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!

23. Oh, that my words were written, or recorded on bronze

24. That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!

24. with an iron tool, a chisel or engraved forever on rock!

25. For I know [that] my redeemer liveth, and [that] he shall stand at the latter [day] upon the earth:

25. For I know that my Redeemer lives, and he, the last, will take his stand on earth

26. And [though] after my skin [worms] destroy this [body], yet in my flesh shall I see God:

26. I will be there behind my skin, and in my flesh I shall see God.

27. Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; [though] my reins be consumed within me.

27. With my own eyes I shall see him - I and not another. How my heart yearns!

28. But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?

28. If you say, "We will pursue him! let us find a charge against him",

29. Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath [bringeth] the punishments of the sword, that ye may know [there is] a judgment.

29. be afraid of the sword yourselves; when Wrath is enflamed against wrong, you will know there is judgment.