Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Job 19
How Long Will You Crush Me with Words?
Then Job answered and said:
“How long will you torment my soul
and crush me with words?
These ten times you have humiliated me;
you are not ashamed to treat me as a stranger.
And even if I have truly erred,
my error remains with me.
If indeed you magnify yourselves against me
and argue my disgrace against me,
know then that God has bent me crooked
and has closed his net around me.
He Has Fenced Up My Way
Look, I cry, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered;
I cry for help, but there is no justice.
He has fenced up my way so that I cannot pass,
and he has set darkness upon my paths.
He has stripped my glory from me
and removed the crown from my head.
He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone;
he uproots my hope like a tree.
He kindles his anger against me
and counts me as one of his adversaries.
His troops come together,
build up their siege ramp against me,
and camp around my tent.
Those I Loved Have Turned Against Me
He has put my brothers far from me,
and people who know me have become complete strangers.
My relatives have ceased to come,
and my close companions have forgotten me.
Those staying in my house and my female servants count me as a stranger;
I have become a foreigner in their eyes.
I call to my servant, but he does not answer;
with my own mouth I must beg him.
My breath is offensive to my wife,
and I am repulsive to the children of my own body.
Even little children despise me;
when I rise, they speak against me.
All the men of my counsel abhor me,
and those I loved have turned against me.
My bones cling to my skin and flesh,
and I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
Have Mercy on Me, My Friends
Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, my friends,
for the hand of God has touched me.
Why do you pursue me as God does
and never become satisfied with my flesh?
I Know That My Redeemer Lives
If only my words were written!
If only they were inscribed in a scroll!
With an iron stylus and lead,
engraved in rock forever!
Yet I know that my redeemer lives,
and afterward he will rise upon the dust.
And after my skin has been destroyed—this!—
yet from my flesh I will see God,
whom I myself will see,
and my eyes will look, and not a stranger.
My inward parts are consumed within me.
Fear the Sword
If you say, ‘How will we pursue him?’
and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’
fear the sword yourselves,
for wrath brings the punishments of the sword,
so that you may know there is judgment.”