Job 19:1-19 ▼

1 Then Job answered:

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

3 These ten times you have been reproaching me; you are not ashamed to attack me!

4 But even if it were true that I have erred, my error remains solely my concern!

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

6 know then that God has wronged me and encircled me with his net.

7 |If I cry out, 'Violence!' I receive no answer; I cry for help, but there is no justice.

8 He has blocked my way so I cannot pass, and has set darkness over my paths.

9 He has stripped me of my honor and has taken the crown off my head.

10 He tears me down on every side until I perish; he uproots my hope like one uproots a tree.

11 Thus his anger burns against me, and he considers me among his enemies.

12 His troops advance together; they throw up a siege ramp against me, and they camp around my tent.

13 |He has put my relatives far from me; my acquaintances only turn away from me.

14 My kinsmen have failed me; my friends have forgotten me.

15 My guests and my servant girls consider me a stranger; I am a foreigner in their eyes.

16 I summon my servant, but he does not respond, even though I implore him with my own mouth.

17 My breath is repulsive to my wife; I am loathsome to my brothers.

18 Even youngsters have scorned me; when I get up, they scoff at me.

19 All my closest friends detest me; and those whom I love have turned against me.