Job 19

¹ Then Job answered and said,

² How long will ye vex my soul,

and destroy me with words?

only know that the Lord hath dealt with me thus.

³ Ye speak against me; ye do not feel for me, but bear hard upon me.

⁴ Yea verily, I have erred in truth

(but the error abideth with myself)

^4a in having spoken words which it was not right to speak;

and my words err, and are unseasonable.

⁵ But alas! for ye magnify yourselves against me,

and insult me with reproach.

⁶ Know then that it is the Lord that hath troubled me,

and hath raised his bulwark against me.

⁷ Behold, I ^[1]laugh at reproach; I will not speak:

or I will cry out, but there is nowhere judgment.

⁸ I am fenced round about, and can by no means escape:

he hath set darkness ^[2]on my paths.

⁹ And he hath stripped me of my glory,

and hath taken the crown from my head.

¹⁰ He hath torn me round about, and I am gone:

and he hath cut off my hope like a tree.

¹¹ And he hath dreadfully handled me in anger,

and hath counted me for an enemy.

¹² His troops also came upon me with one accord,

liers in wait compassed my ways.

¹³ My brethren have stood aloof from me;

they have recognized strangers rather than me:

and my friends have become pitiless.

¹⁴ My nearest of kin have not acknowledged me,

and they that knew my name, have forgotten me.

¹⁵ As for ^[3]my household, and my maidservants,

I was a stranger before them.

¹⁶ I called my servant, and he hearkened not;

and my mouth entreated him.

¹⁷ And I besought my wife,

and ^[4]earnestly entreated the sons of my concubines.

¹⁸ But they rejected me for ever;

whenever I rise up, they speak against me.

¹⁹ They that saw me abhorred me:

the very persons whom I had loved, rose up against me.

²⁰ My flesh is corrupt under my skin,

and my bones are held in my teeth.

²¹ Pity me, pity me, O friends;

for it is the hand of the Lord that hath touched me.

²² Wherefore do ye persecute me as also the Lord doth,

and are not satisfied with my flesh?

²³ For ^[5]O that my words were written,

and that they were recorded in a book for ever,

²⁴ with an iron pen and lead,

or graven in the rocks!

²⁵ For I know that he is eternal who is about to deliver me,

²⁶ and to raise up upon the earth my ^[6]body that endureth these sufferings:

for these things have been accomplished to me of the Lord;

²⁷ which I am conscious of in myself,

which mine eye hath seen, and not another,

but all have been fulfilled to me in my bosom.

²⁸ But if ye shall also say, What shall we say before him,

and so find the root of the matter in him?

²⁹ Do ye also beware of ^[7]judgment:

for wrath will come upon transgressors;

and then shall they know where their ^[8]substance is.

Notes

19:7 laugh: Alex. λαλῶ ↩
19:8 on my paths: Heb. agrees. Vat. before my face ↩
19:15 my household: Gr. neighbours of the house ↩
19:17 earnestly: Gr. flattering, or, fawning ↩
19:23 O that: Gr. Who would grant, etc. ↩
19:26 body: Vat. skin ↩
19:29 judgment: Vat. deceit. Gr. disguise ↩
19:29 substance: Gr. wood ↩