| Chapter 19 |
1 | Then Job answered,
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2 | 'How long will you torment me, And crush me with words?
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3 | You have reproached me ten times. You aren't ashamed that you attack me.
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4 | If it is true that I have erred, My error remains with myself.
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5 | If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, And plead against me my reproach;
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6 | Know now that God has subverted me, And has surrounded me with his net.
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7 | 'Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry for help, but there is no justice.
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8 | He has walled up my way so that I can't pass, And has set darkness in my paths.
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9 | He has stripped me of my glory, And taken the crown from my head.
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10 | He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. My hope he has plucked up like a tree.
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11 | He has also kindled his wrath against me. He counts me among his adversaries.
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12 | His troops come on together, Build a siege ramp against me, And encamp around my tent.
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13 | 'He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
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14 | My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me.
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15 | Those who dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger. I am an alien in their sight.
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16 | I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer; I beg him with my mouth.
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17 | My breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.
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18 | Even young children despise me. If I arise, they speak against me.
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19 | All my familiar friends abhor me. They whom I loved have turned against me.
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20 | My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
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21 | 'Have pity on me, have pity on me, you my friends; For the hand of God has touched me.
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22 | Why do you persecute me as God, And are not satisfied with my flesh?
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23 | 'Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
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24 | That with an iron pen and lead They were engraved in the rock forever!
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25 | But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.
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26 | After my skin is destroyed, Then in my flesh shall I see God,
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27 | Whom I, even I, shall see on my side. My eyes shall see, and not as a stranger. 'My heart is consumed within me.
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28 | If you say, 'How we will persecute him!' Because the root of the matter is found in me,
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29 | Be afraid of the sword, For wrath brings the punishments of the sword, That you may know there is a judgment.'
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