Job 19

Job's Declaration of Faith Amidst Suffering and Misunderstanding

2 min read

1 Then Job answered and said,
2 How long will you vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?
3 These ten times have you reproached me: you are not ashamed that you make yourselves strange to me.
4 And be it indeed that I have erred, my error remains with myself.
5 If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:
6 Know now that God has overthrown me, and has compassed me with his net.
7 Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.
8 He has fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness in my paths.
9 He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.
10 He has destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and my hope has he removed like a tree.
11 He has also kindled his wrath against me, and he counts me to him as one of his enemies.
12 His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.
13 He has put my brothers far from me, and my acquaintance are truly estranged from me.
14 My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.
15 They that dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.
16 I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I entreated him with my mouth.
17 My breath is strange to my wife, though I entreated for the children’s sake of my own body.
18 Yes, young children despised me; I arose, and they spoke against me.
19 All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.
20 My bone sticks to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
21 Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends; for the hand of God has touched me.
22 Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
23 Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!
24 That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!
25 For I know that my redeemer lives, and that he shall stand at the latter day on the earth:
26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
27 Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.
28 But you should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?
29 Be you afraid of the sword: for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.
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