Job 19 · איוב

Then Iyyov answered and said,

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

These ten times have you reproached me: you are not ashamed that you slight me.

And be it indeed that I have erred, my error remains with myself.

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

know now that God has overthrown me, and has compassed me with his net.

Behold, I cry out, Violence, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no justice.

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

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

He has destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and my hope he has uprooted like a tree.

He has also kindled his wrath against me, and he counts me to him as one of his enemies.

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

He has put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.

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

They who dwell in my house, and my womenservants, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.

I call my servant, and he gives me no answer; though I entreat him with my mouth.

My breath is repulsive to my wife, and my cries to my own children.

Yea, young children despise me; I arise, and they speak against me.

All my trusted friends abhor me: and they whom I love are turned against me.

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

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

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

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

that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock for ever!

For I know that my avenger lives, and that he who outlives all things, will rise when I shall be dust.

But whilst I am still in my flesh, though it be after my skin is torn from my body, I would see God:

that I might see him for myself: that my eyes might behold, and not another: in longing for that my reins are consumed within me.

And if you should say, Do we indeed persecute him? and is not the root of the matter found in me?

be afraid of the sword: for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, that you may know that there is judgment.