Job 19, side by side

¹Then Job answered:

¹Then Job answered and said,

²“How long will you torment me and crush me with your words?

²How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?

³Ten times now you have reproached me; you shamelessly mistreat me.

³These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.

⁴Even if I have truly gone astray, my error concerns me alone.

⁴And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.

⁵If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my disgrace against me,

⁵If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:

⁶then understand that it is God who has wronged me and drawn His net around me.

⁶Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.

⁷Though I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice.

⁷Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.

⁸He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; He has veiled my paths with darkness.

⁸He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.

⁹He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head.

⁹He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.

¹⁰He tears me down on every side until I am gone; He uproots my hope like a tree.

¹⁰He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.

¹¹His anger burns against me, and He counts me among His enemies.

¹¹He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.

¹²His troops advance together; they construct a ramp against me and encamp around my tent.

¹²His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.

¹³He has removed my brothers from me; my acquaintances have abandoned me.

¹³He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.

¹⁴My kinsmen have failed me, and my friends have forgotten me.

¹⁴My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.

¹⁵My guests and maidservants count me as a stranger; I am a foreigner in their sight.

¹⁵They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.

¹⁶I call for my servant, but he does not answer, though I implore him with my own mouth.

¹⁶I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.

¹⁷My breath is repulsive to my wife, and I am loathsome to my own family.

¹⁷My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body.

¹⁸Even little boys scorn me; when I appear, they deride me.

¹⁸Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.

¹⁹All my best friends despise me, and those I love have turned against me.

¹⁹All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.

²⁰My skin and flesh cling to my bones; I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

²⁰My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

²¹Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.

²¹Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.

²²Why do you persecute me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh?

²²Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

²³I wish that my words were recorded and inscribed in a book,

²³Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!

²⁴by an iron stylus on lead, or chiseled in stone forever.

²⁴That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!

²⁵But I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth.

²⁵For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

²⁶Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.

²⁶And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

²⁷I will see Him for myself; my eyes will behold Him, and not as a stranger. How my heart yearns within me!

²⁷Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

²⁸If you say, ‘Let us persecute him, since the root of the matter lies with him,’

²⁸But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?

²⁹then you should fear the sword yourselves, because wrath brings punishment by the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment.”

²⁹Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.