19 The reply of Job:
2 “How long are you going to trouble me, and try to break me with your words? 3 Ten times now you have declared I am a sinner. Why aren’t you ashamed to deal with me so harshly? 4 And if indeed I was wrong, you have yet to prove it. 5 You think yourselves so great? Then prove my guilt!
6 “The fact of the matter is that God has overthrown me and caught me in his net. 7 I scream for help and no one hears me. I shriek, but get no justice. 8 God has blocked my path and turned my light to darkness. 9 He has stripped me of my glory and removed the crown from my head. 10 He has broken me down on every side, and I am done for. He has destroyed all hope. 11 His fury burns against me; he counts me as an enemy. 12 He sends his troops to surround my tent.
13 “He has sent away my brothers and my friends. 14 My relatives have failed me; my friends have all forsaken me. 15 Those living in my home, even my servants, regard me as a stranger. I am like a foreigner to them. 16 I call my servant, but he doesn’t come; I even beg him! 17 My own wife and brothers refuse to recognize me. 18 Even young children despise me. When I stand to speak, they mock.
19 “My best friends abhor me. Those I loved have turned against me. 20 I am skin and bones and have escaped death by the skin of my teeth.
21 “Oh, my friends, pity me, for the angry hand of God has touched me. 22 Why must you persecute me as God does? Why aren’t you satisfied with my anguish? 23-24 Oh, that I could write my plea with an iron pen in the rock forever.
25 “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he will stand upon the earth at last. 26 And I know that after this body has decayed, this body shall see God![a] 27 Then he will be on my side! Yes, I shall see him, not as a stranger, but as a friend! What a glorious hope!
28 “How dare you go on persecuting me, as though I were proven guilty? 29 I warn you, you yourselves are in danger of punishment for your attitude.”
Footnotes
- Job 19:26 this body shall see God, or “then even without my flesh I shall see God.”