Job
19 Job said in reply:
4 And if indeed I made a mistake,
My error remains with me.
5 If you insist on exalting yourselves over me,
Claiming that the reproach against me is justified,
6 Know, then, that it is God who has misled me,
And he has caught me in his hunting net.
7 Look! I keep crying out, ‘Violence!’ but I get no answer;+
I keep crying for help, but there is no justice.+
8 My path he has blocked with a stone wall, and I cannot pass by;
He has covered my roadways with darkness.+
9 He has stripped me of my glory
And removed the crown from my head.
10 He breaks me down on all sides until I perish;
My hope he uproots like a tree.
11 His anger burns against me,
And he views me as his enemy.+
12 His troops come together and besiege me,
And they camp around my tent.
13 My own brothers he has driven far away from me,
And those who know me have turned away from me.+
15 Guests in my house+ and my slave girls consider me a stranger;
I am a foreigner in their eyes.
16 I call for my servant, but he does not respond;
With my mouth I beg him for compassion.
18 Even young children despise me;
When I rise up, they begin jeering at me.
20 My bones stick to my skin and my flesh,+
And I escape with the skin of my teeth.
21 Show me mercy, my companions, show me mercy,
For God’s own hand has touched me.+
23 If only my words were written down,
If only they could be inscribed in a book!
24 O that they were carved forever in the rock,
With an iron stylus and lead!
26 After my skin has thus been destroyed,
While yet in my flesh, I will see God,
27 Whom I will see for myself,
Whom my own eyes will see, not someone else’s.+
But deep inside I feel overwhelmed!*
28 For you say, ‘In what way are we persecuting him?’+
Since the root of the problem is with me.