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19:1  Then Job answered:
19:2  “How long will you hurt me and crush me with your words?
19:3  You have insulted me ten times now. You have attacked me without shame!
19:4  Even if I have sinned, it is my problem, not yours!
19:5  You want me to look bad to make yourselves look good. You say my troubles are proof that I did wrong.
19:6  I want you to know it was God who did this. He set this trap for me.
19:7  I shout, ‘He hurt me!’ but get no answer. No one hears my cry for fairness.
19:8  God has blocked my way to keep me from getting through. He has hidden my path in darkness.
19:9  He took away my honor. He took the crown from my head.
19:10  He hits me on every side until I am worn out. He takes away my hope. It is like a tree pulled up by the roots.
19:11  His anger burns against me. He treats me like an enemy.
19:12  He sends his army to attack me. They build attack towers around me. They camp around my tent.
19:13  “God has made my brothers hate me. Those who knew me have become strangers.
19:14  My relatives have left me. My friends have forgotten me.
19:15  My servant girls and visitors in my home look at me as if I am a stranger and a foreigner.
19:16  I call for my servant, but he does not answer. Even if I beg for help, he will not answer.
19:17  My wife hates the smell of my breath. My own brothers hate me.
19:18  Even little children make fun of me. When I get up, they say bad things about me.
19:19  All my close friends hate me. Even my loved ones have turned against me.
19:20  “I am so thin, my skin hangs loose on my bones. I have little life left in me.
19:21  “Pity me, my friends, pity me, because God is against me.
19:22  Why do you persecute me as God does? Don’t you get tired of hurting me?
19:23  “I wish someone would write down everything I say. I wish my words were written on a scroll.
19:24  I wish they were carved with an iron tool into lead or scratched on a rock so that they would last forever.
19:25  I know that there is someone to defend me and that he lives! And in the end, he will stand here on earth and defend me.
19:26  After I leave my body and my skin has been destroyed, I know I will still see God.
19:27  I will see him with my own eyes. I myself, not someone else, will see God. And I cannot tell you how excited that makes me feel!
19:28  “Maybe you will say, ‘How can we push Job a little harder and make him realize that he is the source of his problems?’
19:29  But you need to worry about your own punishment. God might use the sword against you! Then you will know there is a time for judgment.”