19:1 Then Job replied:

19:2 "How long will you torment me and crush me with words?

19:3 Ten times now you have reproached me; shamelessly you attack me.

19:4 If it is true that I have gone astray, my error remains my concern alone.

19:5 If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my humiliation against me,

19:6 then know that God has wronged me and drawn his net around me.

19:7 "Though I cry, 'I've been wronged!' I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice.

19:8 He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; he has shrouded my paths in darkness.

19:9 He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head.

19:10 He tears me down on every side till I am gone; he uproots my hope like a tree.

19:11 His anger burns against me; he counts me among his enemies.

19:12 His troops advance in force; they build a siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent.

19:13 "He has alienated my brothers from me; my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.

19:14 My kinsmen have gone away; my friends have forgotten me.

19:15 My guests and my maidservants count me a stranger; they look upon me as an alien.

19:16 I summon my servant, but he does not answer, though I beg him with my own mouth.

19:17 My breath is offensive to my wife; I am loathsome to my own brothers.

19:18 Even the little boys scorn me; when I appear, they ridicule me.

19:19 All my intimate friends detest me; those I love have turned against me.

19:20 I am nothing but skin and bones; I have escaped with only the skin of my teeth.

19:21 "Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.

19:22 Why do you pursue me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh?

19:23 "Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll,

19:24 that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever!

19:25 I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.

19:26 And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;

19:27 I myself will see him with my own eyes--I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

19:28 "If you say, 'How we will hound him, since the root of the trouble lies in him,'

19:29 you should fear the sword yourselves; for wrath will bring punishment by the sword, and then you will know that there is judgment."