AB - Job - 19

19:1  Then Job answered and said,

19:2  How long will you torment my soul, and destroy me with words? Only know that the Lord has dealt with me thus.

19:3  You speak against me; you do not feel for me, but bear hard upon me.

19:4  Surely 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 unreasonable.

19:5  But alas! For you magnify yourselves against me, and insult me with reproach.

19:6  Know then that it is the Lord that has troubled me, and has raised His bulwark against me.

19:7  Behold, I laugh at reproach; I will not speak: or I will cry out, but judgment is nowhere.

19:8  I am fenced round about, and can by no means escape: He has set darkness before my face.

19:9  And He has stripped me of my glory, and has taken the crown from my head.

19:10  He has torn me round about, and I am gone, and He has cut off my hope like a tree.

19:11  And He has dreadfully handled me in anger, and has counted me for an enemy.

19:12  His troops also came upon me with one accord, liars in wait compassed my ways.

19:13  My brothers have stood far from me; they have recognized strangers rather than me: and my friends have become pitiless.

19:14  My relatives have not acknowledged me, and they that knew my name have forgotten me.

19:15  As for my household, and my maidservants, I was a stranger before them.

19:16  I called my servant, but he gives no answer; and my mouth begged him.

19:17  And I besought my wife, and earnestly begged the sons of my concubines.

19:18  But they rejected me forever; whenever I rise up, they speak against me.

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

19:20  My flesh is corrupt under my skin, and my bones are held in my teeth.

19:21  Pity me, pity me, O my friends; for it is the hand of the Lord that has touched me.

19:22  Why do you persecute me as also the Lord does, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

19:23  For oh that my words were written, and that they were recorded in a book forever,

19:24  with an iron pen and lead, or engraved in the rocks!

19:25  For I know that He is eternal who is about to deliver me,

19:26  and to raise up upon the earth my skin that endures these sufferings: for these things have been accomplished to me of the Lord;

19:27  which I am conscious of in myself, which my eye has seen, and not another, but all have been fulfilled to me in my bosom.

19:28  But if you shall also say, What shall we say before him, and so find the root of the matter in him?

19:29  Beware of deceit for yourselves; for wrath will come upon transgressors; and then shall they know where their substance is.