LEB JOB Chapter 19

Job’s Sixth Speech: A Response to Bildad

19 Then[fn] Job answered and said,

• 2 “ How long[fn] will you[fn] torment me[fn]
• and crush me with words?
• 3 These ten times you[fn] have disgraced me;
• you[fn] are not ashamed that you[fn] have attacked[fn] me.
• 4 And what is more, if I have truly erred,
• my error remains with me.
• 5 If indeed you[fn] must magnify yourselves against me,
• and you[fn] must let my disgrace argue against me,
• 6 know then that God has wronged me
• and has surrounded me with his net.
• 7 “Look, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but[fn] I am not answered;
• I cry out, but[fn] there is no justice.
• 8 He has walled up my way so that[fn] I cannot pass;
• and he has set darkness upon my paths.
• 9 He has taken my glory from me,
• and he has removed the crown of[fn] my head.
• 10 He has broken me down all around, and I am gone.
• And he has uprooted my hope like a tree,
• 11 and he has kindled his wrath against me,
• and he has counted me as one of his foes .[fn]
• 12 His troops have come together
• and have thrown up their rampart[fn] against me
• and have encamped around my tent.
• 13 “He has removed my kinsfolk from me,
• and my acquaintances have only[fn] turned aside from me.
• 14 My relatives have failed,
• and my close friends have forgotten me.
• 15 The sojourners in[fn] my house and my slave women count me as a stranger;
• I have become a foreigner in their eyes.
• 16 I call to my servant, but[fn] he does not answer;
• I must personally[fn] plead with him.
• 17 My breath is repulsive to my wife,
• and I am loathsome to my own family .[fn]
• 18 Little boys also despise me;
• when I rise, then[fn] they talk against me.
• 19 All my intimate friends[fn] abhor me,
• and these whom I have loved have turned against me.
• 20 My bones[fn] cling to my skin and to my flesh,
• and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
• 21 “Pity me, pity me, you my friends,
• for God’s hand has touched me.
• 22 Why do you[fn] pursue me like God?
• And are not satisfied with my flesh?
• 23 “ O that[fn] my words could be written down!
• O that they could be inscribed in a scroll ![fn]
• 24 That with a pen of iron and with lead
• they might be engraved on a rock forever!
• 25 But[fn] I myself[fn] know that my redeemer is alive,
• and at the last he will stand up upon the earth .[fn]
• 26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
• but[fn] from[fn] my flesh I will see God,
• 27 whom I will see for myself ,[fn]
• and whom my eyes will see and not a stranger.[fn]
• My heart faints within me .[fn]
• 28 “If you[fn] say, ‘How will we persecute him?’
• And ‘The root of the trouble is found’ in me,[fn]
• 29 be afraid for yourselves because of the sword ,[fn]
• for wrath brings punishment by[fn] the sword,
• so that you may know that there is judgment.”