Job 19

₂‘How long do you want

to keep on hurting me?

How long do you want to say

things that trample me?

₃You have said very bad things to me,

more than 10 times.

Are you not ashamed because

you have humiliated me like that?

₄If I have done wrong,

it is not your problem, but mine.

₅You think that you are better than I am

and you say that I suffer

because I have done wrong.

₆But you should know that

it is God who makes me suffer.

He has caught me in his trap.

₇I shout to Him and tell Him

that He is hurting me,

but He does not answer me.

I call Him and ask Him for help,

but He does not listen to me.

₈He has closed my way,

and I can not pass.

He has made me walk in the dark.

₉He has humiliated me, and no one respects me.

₁₀He makes me suffer.

He breaks me down like a wall

which is being broken down, and I am dying.

He takes away the hope that I had,

like a tree that has been pulled

out of the ground.

₁₁God is very angry with me.

He looks at me like I am an enemy.

₁₂All of his soldiers have come to attack me,

and they have put up their tents around me.

₁₃God has taken my family away from me,

and the people that knew me

have become strangers to me.

₁₄My family has gone away from me,

and my best friends have forgotten me.

₁₅People who lived with me

and my servant girls say

they don't know me.

I am like someone from another land to them.

₁₆When I call my slave,

he does not answer me,

and I must beg him to help me.

₁₇My wife does not like my breath,

and my brothers don't want to come near me.

₁₈Even young children don't respect me,

and they mock me if I want to get up.

₁₉My best friends don't want to come near me.

I love them, but they are against me.

₂₀I am very thin. I am just skin and bones.

I am still_alive, but my life is worthless.

₂₁You, who are my friends,

please feel sorry for me,

and have mercy on me

because God has punished me.

His hand was against me.

₂₂Why do you keep on

chasing me like God does?

Look how much I am suffering.

Is that not enough for you? It should be.’

₂₃‘I wish that someone

would write down what I say.

I hope someone writes it in a book.

₂₄I hope someone writes it with lead

on a stone so that it will always stay there.

₂₅I know one thing for sure:

My Redeemer lives,

and He will win on this earth.

₂₆I don't have a lot of skin left on my body,

but I will see God while I am alive.

₂₇I will see Him myself, not someone else.

I will see Him with my eyes

and I long for that day.

₂₈You want to accuse me

even more because you think

it is my fault that I am suffering,

₂₉but you must be afraid

of the sword of God.

He will punish people who say

things that are wrong.

You must know that He will judge you.’