Job Trusts in His Redeemer

² “How long will you torment my soul,
And break me in pieces with words?

³ These ten times you have reproached me;
You are not ashamed that you have wronged me.^[a]

⁴ And if indeed I have erred,
My error remains with me.

⁵ If indeed you exalt yourselves against me,
And plead my disgrace against me,

⁶ Know then that God has wronged me,
And has surrounded me with His net.

⁷ “If I cry out concerning wrong, I am not heard.
If I cry aloud, there is no justice.

⁸ He has fenced up my way, so 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 breaks me down on every side,
And I am gone;
My hope He has uprooted like a tree.

¹¹ He has also kindled His wrath against me,
And He counts me as one of His enemies.

¹² His troops come together
And build up their road against me;
They encamp all around my tent.

¹³ “He has removed my brothers far from me,
And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.

¹⁴ My relatives have failed,
And my close friends have forgotten me.

¹⁵ Those who dwell in my house, and my maidservants,
Count me as a stranger;
I am an alien in their sight.

¹⁶ I call my servant, but he gives no answer;
I beg him with my mouth.

¹⁷ My breath is offensive to my wife,
And I am repulsive to the children of my own body.

¹⁸ Even young children despise me;
I arise, and they speak against me.

¹⁹ All my close friends abhor me,
And those whom I love have turned against me.

²⁰ My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh,
And I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

²¹ “Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends,
For the hand of God has struck me!

²² Why do you persecute me as God does,
And are not satisfied with my flesh?

²³ “Oh, that my words were written!
Oh, that they were inscribed in a book!

²⁴ That they were engraved on a rock
With an iron pen and lead, forever!

²⁵ For I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth;

²⁶ And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
That in my flesh I shall see God,

²⁷ Whom I shall see for myself,
And my eyes shall behold, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!

²⁸ If you should say, ‘How shall we persecute him?’—
Since the root of the matter is found in me,

²⁹ Be afraid of the sword for yourselves;
For wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
That you may know there is a judgment.”