19:1 Then Job answered:
19:2 “How long will you torment me1
and crush2 me with your words?3
19:3 These ten times4 you have been reproaching me;5
you are not ashamed to attack me!6
19:4 But even if it were7 true that I have erred,8
my error9 remains solely my concern!
19:5 If indeed10 you would exalt yourselves11 above me
and plead my disgrace against me,12
19:6 know13 then that God has wronged me14
and encircled15 me with his net.16
Job’s Abandonment and Affliction
19:7 “If17 I cry out,18 ‘Violence!’19
I receive no answer;20
I cry for help,
but there is no justice.
19:8 He has blocked21 my way so I cannot pass,
and has set darkness22 over my paths.
19:9 He has stripped me of my honor
and has taken the crown off my head.23
19:10 He tears me down24 on every side until I perish;25
he uproots26 my hope27 like one uproots28 a tree.
19:11 Thus29 his anger burns against me,
and he considers me among his enemies.30
19:12 His troops31 advance together;
they throw up32 a siege ramp against me,
and they camp around my tent.
Job’s Forsaken State
19:13 “He has put my relatives33 far from me;
my acquaintances only34 turn away from me.
19:14 My kinsmen have failed me;
my friends35 have forgotten me.36
19:15 My guests37 and my servant girls
consider38 me a stranger;
I am a foreigner39 in their eyes.
19:16 I summon40 my servant, but he does not respond,
even though I implore41 him with my own mouth.
19:17 My breath is repulsive42 to my wife;
I am loathsome43 to my brothers.44
19:18 Even youngsters have scorned me;
when I get up,45 they scoff at me.46
19:19 All my closest friends47 detest me;
and those whom48 I love have turned against me.49
19:20 My bones stick to my skin and my flesh;50
I have escaped51 alive52 with only the skin of my teeth.
19:21 Have pity on me, my friends, have pity on me,
for the hand of God has struck me.
19:22 Why do you pursue me like God does?53
Will you never be satiated with my flesh?54
Job’s Assurance of Vindication
19:23 “O that55 my words were written down,
O that they were written on a scroll,56
19:24 that with an iron chisel and with lead57
they were engraved in a rock forever!
19:25 As for me, I know that my Redeemer58 lives,
and that as the last59
he will stand upon the earth.60
19:26 And after my skin has been destroyed,61
yet in my flesh62 I will see God,63
19:27 whom I will see for myself,64
and whom my own eyes will behold,
and not another.65
My heart66 grows faint within me.67
19:28 If you say, ‘How we will pursue him,
since the root of the trouble is found in him!’68
19:29 Fear the sword yourselves,
for wrath69 brings the punishment70 by the sword,
so that you may know
that there is judgment.”71
Zophar’s Second Speech72