GodsWord - Job - 19

19:1  Then Job replied to his friends,

19:2  "How long will you torment me and depress me with words?

19:3  You have insulted me ten times now. You're not even ashamed of mistreating me.

19:4  Even if it were true that I've made a mistake without realizing it, my mistake would affect only me.

19:5  If you are trying to make yourselves look better than me by using my disgrace as an argument against me,

19:6  then I want you to know that God has wronged me and surrounded me with his net.

19:7  Indeed, I cry, 'Help! I'm being attacked!' but I get no response. I call for help, but there is no justice.

19:8  "God has blocked my path so that I can't go on. He has made my paths dark.

19:9  He has stripped me of my honor. He has taken the crown off my head.

19:10  He beats me down on every side until I'm gone. He uproots my hope like a tree.

19:11  He is very angry at me. He considers me to be his enemy.

19:12  His troops assemble against me. They build a ramp to attack me and camp around my tent.

19:13  "My brothers stay far away from me. My friends are complete strangers to me.

19:14  My relatives and my closest friends have stopped coming. My house guests have forgotten me.

19:15  My female slaves consider me to be a stranger. I am like a foreigner to them.

19:16  I call my slave, but he doesn't answer, though I beg him.

19:17  My breath offends my wife. I stink to my own children.

19:18  Even young children despise me. If I stand up, they make fun of me.

19:19  All my closest friends are disgusted with me. Those I love have turned against me.

19:20  I am skin and bones, and I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.

19:21  "Have pity on me, my friends! Have pity on me because God's hand has struck me down.

19:22  Why do you pursue me as God does? Why are you never satisfied with my flesh?

19:23  "I wish now my words were written. I wish they were inscribed on a scroll.

19:24  I wish they were forever engraved on a rock with an iron stylus and lead.

19:25  But I know that my defender lives, and afterwards, he will rise on the earth.

19:26  Even after my skin has been stripped off my body, I will see God in my own flesh.

19:27  I will see him with my own eyes, not with someone else's. My heart fails inside me!

19:28  "You say, 'We will persecute him! The root of the problem is found in him.'

19:29  Fear death, because your anger is punishable by death. Then you will know there is a judge."