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As they that went before are affrighted.

²¹Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked,

And this is the place of him that knoweth not God.

19 Then Job answered and said:

²How long will ye vex my soul,

And crush me with words?

³These ten times have ye reproached me;

Ye are not ashamed that ye deal harshly with me.

⁴And be it indeed that I have erred,

Mine error remaineth with myself.

⁵If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me,

And plead against me my reproach;

⁶Know now that God hath subverted my cause,

And hath compassed me with His net.

⁷Behold, I cry out: 'Violence! ' but I am not heard;

I cry aloud, but there is no justice.

⁸He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass,

And hath set darkness in my paths.

⁹He hath stripped me of my glory,

And taken the crown from my head.

¹⁰He hath broken me down on every side, and I am gone;

And my hope hath He plucked up like a tree.

¹¹He hath also kindled His wrath against me,

And He counteth me unto Him as one of His adversaries.

¹²His troops come on together,

And cast up their way against me,

And encamp round about my tent.

¹³He hath put my brethren far from me,

And mine acquaintance are wholly estranged from me.

¹⁴My kinsfolk have failed,

And my familiar friends have forgotten me.

¹⁵They that dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger;

I am become an alien in their sight.

¹⁶I call unto my servant, and he giveth me no answer,

Though I entreat him with my mouth.

¹⁷My breath is abhorred of my wife,

And I am loathsome to the children of my tribe.

¹⁸Even urchins despised me;

If I arise, they speak against me.

¹⁹All my intimate friends abhor me;

And they whom I loved are turned against me.

²⁰My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh,

And I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

 

²¹Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends;

For the hand of God hath touched me.

²²Why do ye persecute me as God,

And are not satisfied with my flesh?

²³Oh that my words were now written!

Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

²⁴That with an iron pen and lead

They were graven in the rock for ever!

²⁵But as for me, I know that my Redeemer liveth,

And that He will witness at the last upon the dust;

²⁶And when after my skin this is destroyed,

Then without my flesh shall I see God;

²⁷Whom I, even I, shall see for myself,

And mine eyes shall behold, and not another's.

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