Job 19

Then Job answered and said,

1Then Job answered his friends and said,

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

2"How long will you hurt me? Your words crush me into pieces.

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

3You have blamed me ten times now. You are not even ashamed of how badly you treat me.

NoteThe old wording says they "make yourselves strange" to Job. It means they treat him badly, like he is not their friend.

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

4Even if I really have done wrong, that is my own problem, not yours.

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

5Maybe you want to make yourselves look better than me. Maybe you point at my troubles and say they prove I am bad.

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

6Then know this: God is the one who has wronged me. He has caught me like an animal in a net.

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

7I shout, 'This is not fair!' But no one answers me. I call for help, but no one helps.

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

8He has blocked my road so I cannot get through. He has covered my paths with darkness.

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

9He has taken away my good name. He has taken the crown off my head.

10He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.

10He tears me down on every side until I am gone. He pulls up my hope like pulling up a tree.

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

11His anger burns against me. He treats me like one of his enemies.

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

12His soldiers march against me together. They pile up dirt to attack my tent. They set up camp all around me.

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

13He has pushed my brothers away from me. The people I knew have all left me.

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

14My family has let me down. My close friends have forgotten me.

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

15My guests and my servant girls look at me like a stranger. To them I am someone from far away.

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

16I call my servant, but he does not answer. I have to beg him with my own mouth.

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

17My breath smells bad to my wife. My own family cannot stand to be near me.

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

18Even little children make fun of me. When I stand up, they laugh and say mean things.

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

19All my best friends hate to look at me. The ones I loved have turned against me.

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

20I am so thin that my skin hangs on my bones. I have barely escaped alive.

Note"The skin of my teeth" means Job just barely got away alive. We still use this saying today.

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

21Have pity on me, my friends. Please have pity on me. God's hand has struck me.

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

22Why do you chase me the way God does? Have you not hurt me enough already?

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

23I wish someone would write my words down. I wish they were put in a book.

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

24I wish they were cut into rock with an iron tool. Then they would last forever.

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

25But I know that my Redeemer, the one who saves me, is alive. In the end he will stand upon the earth.

NoteA "redeemer" was a family member who paid to buy back a relative in trouble. Job says he has someone like that, and that person is alive.

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

26Even after my skin is destroyed, I will still see God in my body.

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

27I will see him with my own eyes. I will see him myself, not someone else. My heart aches inside me while I wait.

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

28Maybe you say, 'Let's keep after him. The trouble must start with him.'

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

29Then you should be afraid yourselves. Anger brings punishment by the sword. Then you will know there is a judge.