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19:1  Then Job replied. This is what he said:
19:2  ‘Please stop speaking to me like that! Your words continue to make me suffer.
19:3  You have insulted me many, many times. You should be ashamed to attack me like that.
19:4  I might have done things that are wrong. But even if that might be true, those wrong things have not hurt you.
19:5  You think that you are better people than I am. Because I have all these troubles, you say that I must be guilty.
19:6  But you should realize that God has caused all my troubles. He is the one who has caught me in his trap.
19:7  If I shout, “Help me, I am in trouble!” nobody answers me. I shout to get help, but nobody comes to give me justice.
19:8  God has stopped me so that I cannot move forward. He has made my path dark so that I cannot see the way to go.
19:9  He has taken away my honour so that nobody respects me.
19:10  Everywhere that I go, God is there to attack me. He is ready to destroy me. He has taken away my hope, as if he has dug a tree out of the ground.
19:11  He is very angry against me. He attacks me as if I am his enemy.
19:12  His whole army is coming to attack me! They build a road so that they can reach me. They are all around me.
19:13  God has caused my brothers to stay away from me. My friends do not want to meet me.
19:14  My relatives have left me. My best friends have forgotten me.
19:15  Visitors who stayed in my house now think that I am a stranger. Even my servants think that I am a foreigner.
19:16  I tell my servant to come to me but he does not come. I ask him to help me, but he does nothing.
19:17  My wife moves away from the smell of my breath. My brothers stay away from me.
19:18  Even young children insult me. When I stand up, they laugh at me.
19:19  My best friends hate me. People that I love have turned against me.
19:20  My body is now only skin and bones. I still breathe but I am only just alive.
19:21  Please be kind to me, my friends. God has caused me to suffer, so please be kind to me.
19:22  Do not punish me as God is punishing me. You have already caused me to suffer enough.
19:23  Someone should write down the words that I speak. My words should be written on a scroll.
19:24  If someone uses an iron tool to write them on a rock, that would be good. Then they would never disappear.
19:25  As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. I know that, in the end, he will stand on the earth.
19:26  Illness may completely destroy my skin. But after that happens, I know that in this body I will see God.
19:27  I will see him for myself, with my own eyes. It makes me feel weak inside as I think about it!
19:28  My friends, you should not think of ways to make me suffer even more. You say that I have caused my own trouble.
19:29  Instead, you yourselves should be afraid of punishment! When God is angry with someone, he punishes that person. Then you will know that he is the one who judges people.’