Job 19  Tree of Life Version

² “How long will you torment my soul
    and crush me with words?
³ Ten times now you have reproached me;
    you attack me shamelessly.
⁴ But even if it is true that I have erred,
    my error remains with me.
⁵ If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me
    and prove my humiliation against me,
⁶ then know that God has wronged me
    and encircled me with His net.

⁷ “Though I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I get no response.
I cry for help, but there is no justice.
⁸ He has blocked my way so I cannot pass,
    and has shrouded my path in darkness.
⁹ He has stripped me of my honor,
    and removed the crown from my head.
¹⁰ He tears me down on every side until I am gone;
    He uproots my hope like a tree.
¹¹ His anger burns against me,
    and He considers me among His enemies.
¹² His troops advance together;
    they build a siege ramp against me
    and encamp around my tent.

¹³ “He removed my brothers far from me;
    my acquaintances are only strangers to me.
¹⁴ My relatives have gone away and my close friends
    have forgotten me.
¹⁵ My houseguests and my maidservants consider me a stranger.
I have become a foreigner in their eyes.
¹⁶ I call my servant but he does not reply
    though I beg him with my own mouth.
¹⁷ My breath is repulsive to my wife;
    I am loathsome to my children.
¹⁸ Even young children despise me;
    when I stand, they speak against me.^[a]
19 All my close friends despise me;
    those I love have turned against me.
²⁰ My bones cling to my skin and my flesh;
    I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.

²¹ “Have pity on me my friends, have pity,
for the hand of God has struck me.
²² Why do you pursue me—like God?
    Are you not satisfied with my flesh?
²³ Oh that my words were written,
    that they were recorded in a scroll
²⁴ that with an iron pen and lead,
    they were engraved in stone forever!

²⁸ “If you say, ‘How we will pursue him,
    since the root of the matter is found in him;’
²⁹ then you should fear the sword for yourselves;
    for wrath brings the punishments of the sword—
    so that you may know judgment!”