19:2 How long will you afflict my spirit, grind me down with words?
19:3 These ten times you have humiliated me, have assailed me without shame!
19:4 Even if it were true that I am at fault, my fault would remain with me;
19:5 If truly you exalt yourselves at my expense, and use my shame as an argument against me,
19:6 Know then that it is God who has dealt unfairly with me, and compassed me round with his net.
19:7 If I cry out “Violence!” I am not answered. I shout for help, but there is no justice.
19:8 He has barred my way and I cannot pass; veiled my path in darkness;
19:9 He has stripped me of my glory, taken the diadem from my brow.
19:10 He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; he has uprooted my hope like a tree.
19:11 He has kindled his wrath against me; he counts me one of his enemies.
19:12 His troops advance as one; they build up their road to attack me, encamp around my tent.
19:13 My family has withdrawn from me, my friends are wholly estranged.
19:14 My relatives and companions neglect me, my guests have forgotten me.
19:15 Even my maidservants consider me a stranger; I am a foreigner in their sight.
19:16 I call my servant, but he gives no answer, though I plead aloud with him.
19:17 My breath is abhorrent to my wife; I am loathsome to my very children.
19:18 Even young children despise me; when I appear, they speak against me.
19:19 All my intimate friends hold me in horror; those whom I loved have turned against me!
19:20 My bones cling to my skin, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
19:21 Pity me, pity me, you my friends, for the hand of God has struck me!
19:22 Why do you pursue me like God, and prey insatiably upon me?
19:23 Oh, would that my words were written down! Would that they were inscribed in a record:
19:24 That with an iron chisel and with lead they were cut in the rock forever!
19:25 As for me, I know that my vindicator lives, and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust.
19:26 This will happen when my skin has been stripped off, and from my flesh I will see God:
19:27 I will see for myself, my own eyes, not another’s, will behold him: my inmost being is consumed with longing.
19:28 But you who say, “How shall we persecute him, seeing that the root of the matter is found in him?”
19:29 Be afraid of the sword for yourselves, for your anger is a crime deserving the sword; that you may know that there is a judgment.
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