Job 19 Job Complains of His Friends' Stubbornness and Hardness

 Job 19

Job Complains of His Friends' Stubbornness and Hardness

1 Then Job answered and said,

2 How long will you grieve my soul, and break me with words?

3 These ten times you have put me to shame; you are not ashamed of me by hardening yourselves against me.

4 Though I have indeed done wrong, my error will remain with me.

5 If you indeed rise up against me, and reprove me for my reproach,

6 Know now that God has overthrown me, and has encompassed me with his net.

7 Behold, I cry out, “Violence!” but no one hears; I cry, “Help!” but there is no justice.

8 He has hedged up my way, so that I cannot pass; he has set darkness in my paths.

9 He has stripped me of my honor; he has taken the crown from my head.

10 He has broken me on every side, and I am gone; he has plucked up my hope like a tree.

11 He has kindled his anger against me, and has counted me as one of his enemies.

12 His troops have come together and prepared a way for me; they have encamped around my tent.

13 He has put my brothers far from me, and my acquaintances have become strangers to me.

14 My relatives have forsaken me, and my acquaintances have forgotten me.

15 My household and my maidservants have regarded me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their sight.

16 I called to my servant, but he did not answer me; I even made supplication with my mouth.

17 My breath has made me a stranger to my wife, and my supplication to the children of my body. 

18 Even young men despise me; when I rise up, they speak against me.

19 All the men of my secret council abhor me; even those I loved have turned against me.

20 My bones cleave to my skin and to my flesh, and I escape with the skin of my teeth.

21 Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy on me, for the hand of God has touched me.

22 Why do you persecute me like God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

23 Oh, that my words were written! Oh, that they were engraved in a book!

24 With an iron pen and with lead, they were engraved in the rock forever!

25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at last he will stand upon the earth.

26 And after my skin is destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.

27 I will see it for myself, and my eyes, and not others, will see it; and therefore my kidneys are consumed within me.

28 Why should you say, "Why do we persecute him?" For the root of the accusation is in me.

29 Fear the sword for yourselves, for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, that you may know that there is judgment.