Job 19:1-29 GW

[1] Then Job replied to his friends, [2] "How long will you torment me and depress me with words? [3] You have insulted me ten times now. You're not even ashamed of mistreating me. [4] Even if it were true that I've made a mistake without realizing it, my mistake would affect only me. [5] If you are trying to make yourselves look better than me by using my disgrace as an argument against me, [6] then I want you to know that God has wronged me and surrounded me with his net. [7] Indeed, I cry, 'Help! I'm being attacked!' but I get no response. I call for help, but there is no justice. [8] "God has blocked my path so that I can't go on. He has made my paths dark. [9] He has stripped me of my honor. He has taken the crown off my head. [10] He beats me down on every side until I'm gone. He uproots my hope like a tree. [11] He is very angry at me. He considers me to be his enemy. [12] His troops assemble against me. They build a ramp to attack me and camp around my tent. [13] "My brothers stay far away from me. My friends are complete strangers to me. [14] My relatives and my closest friends have stopped coming. My house guests have forgotten me. [15] My female slaves consider me to be a stranger. I am like a foreigner to them. [16] I call my slave, but he doesn't answer, though I beg him. [17] My breath offends my wife. I stink to my own children. [18] Even young children despise me. If I stand up, they make fun of me. [19] All my closest friends are disgusted with me. Those I love have turned against me. [20] I am skin and bones, and I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth. [21] "Have pity on me, my friends! Have pity on me because God's hand has struck me down. [22] Why do you pursue me as God does? Why are you never satisfied with my flesh? [23] "I wish now my words were written. I wish they were inscribed on a scroll. [24] I wish they were forever engraved on a rock with an iron stylus and lead. [25] But I know that my defender lives, and afterwards, he will rise on the earth. [26] Even after my skin has been stripped off my body, I will see God in my own flesh. [27] I will see him with my own eyes, not with someone else's. My heart fails inside me! [28] "You say, 'We will persecute him! The root of the problem is found in him.' [29] Fear death, because your anger is punishable by death. Then you will know there is a judge."