Job 19

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Job Answers

19 <1> Then Job answered:

<2> "How long will you hurt me

and crush me with your words?

<3> You have insulted me ten times now.

You show no shame when you attack me!

<4> Even if I have sinned,

it is my problem, not yours!

<5> You just want to make yourselves

look good and make me look bad.

You say that my troubles

are proof that I did wrong.

<6> I want you to know that

it was God who did this to me.

He is the one who set this trap for me.

<7> I shout, 'He hurt me!'

But I get no answer.

Even if I call loudly for help,

no one hears my cry for fairness.

<8> God has blocked my way

so that I cannot go through.

He has hidden my path in darkness.

<9> He took away my honor.

He took the crown from my head.

<10> He hits me from every side until I am worn out.

He takes away my hope

like a tree pulled up by the roots.

<11> His anger burns against me.

He calls me his enemy.

<12> He sends his army to attack me.

They build attack towers around me.

They camp around my tent.

<13> "God has made my brothers hate me.

I am a stranger to all my friends.

<14> My relatives have left me.

My friends have forgotten me.

<15> My servant girls and visitors in my home

look at me like I am a stranger and a foreigner.

<16> I call for my servant, but he does not answer.

Even if I beg for help, he will not answer.

<17> My wife hates the smell of my breath.

My own brothers hate me.

<18> Even little children make fun of me.

When I get up, they say bad things about me.

<19> All my close friends hate me.

Even my loved ones turned against me.

<20> "I am so thin, my skin hangs loose on my bones.

I have little life left in me.

<21> "Pity me, my friends, pity me,

because God is against me.

<22> Why do you persecute me like God does?

Don't you get tired of hurting me?

<23> "I wish someone would remember

what I say and write it in a book.

I wish my words were written on a scroll.

<24> I wish the things I say were carved

with an iron tool on lead or scratched on a rock

so they would last forever.

<25> I know there is someone to defend me.

I know he lives!

And in the end, he will stand here on earth

and defend me,

<26> after my skin has been destroyed.

But I want to see God while I am still in my body.

I want to see him for myself.

<27> I want to see him with my own eyes,

not through someone else's eyes.

And I cannot tell you how much

I want that to happen![42]

<28> "Maybe you will say,

'How can we push Job a little harder?

How can we make him realize

that he is the source of his problems?'

<29> But you need to worry

about your own punishment.

God might use the sword against you

so you will know that there is a time of judgment."