Job 19

My Redeemer Lives

1 Then Job answered and said,

2 “How long will you torment my soul
And crush me with words?
3 “These ten times you have dishonored me;
You are not ashamed that you wrong me.
4 “ ^{▼▼Or Indeed, I have truly erred}Even if I have truly erred,
My error lodges with me.
5 “If truly you magnify yourselves against me
And argue my disgrace to me,
6 Know then that God has wronged me
And has closed His net around me.
7 “Behold, I cry, ‘Violence!’ but I get no answer;
I shout for help, but there is no justice.
8 “He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass,
And He has put darkness on my paths.
9 “He has stripped my honor from me
And removed the crown from my head.
10 “He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone;
And He has uprooted my hope like a tree.
11 “He has also kindled His anger against me
And counted me as His adversary.
12 “His troops come together,
And build up their ^{▼▼Siegework}way against me
And camp around my tent.
13 “He has removed my brothers far from me,
And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.
14 “My relatives have failed,
And my familiar friends have forgotten me.
15 “Those who sojourn in my house and my maidservants count me a stranger.
I am a foreigner in their sight.
16 “I call to my servant, but he does not answer;
I have to implore him with my mouth.
17 “My breath is ^{▼▼Lit strange}offensive to my wife,
And I am loathsome to my own brothers.
18 “Even young children reject me;
I rise up, and they speak against me.
19 “All the men of my counsel abhor me,
And those I love have turned against me.
20 “My bone clings to my skin and my flesh,
And I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
21 “Pity me, pity me, O you my friends,
For the hand of God has smitten me.
22 “Why do you persecute me as God does,
And are not satisfied with my flesh?
23 “Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
24 “That with an iron stylus and lead
They were engraved in the rock forever!
25 “As for me, I know that my ^{▼▼Or Vindicator, Defender; lit kinsman}Redeemer lives,
And ^{▼▼Lit after, cf. Job 19:26}at the last He will rise up over the dust of this world.
26 “Even after my skin ^{▼▼Lit which they have cut off}is destroyed,
Yet from my flesh I shall behold God,
27 Whom I ^{▼▼Or on my side}myself shall behold,
And whom my eyes will see and not another.
My ^{▼▼Lit kidneys}heart faints ^{▼▼Lit in my loins}within me!
28 “If you say, ‘How shall we persecute him?’
‘And the root of the matter is found in ^{▼▼Lit me}him?’
29 “Then be afraid of the sword for yourselves,
For wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
So that you may know there is judgment.”