The Holy Bible – Knox Translation
The Book of Job
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Chapter 19
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But Job answered:
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What, will you torment me still? Every word of yours a fresh weight to crush me?
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How many times is this you have fallen on me, trampled me down without ruth?
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If, unawares, I have committed some fault, it concerns none but myself;
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not for you to claim authority over me, bring home to me my disgrace!
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How to make you understand that God has misjudged me, caught me in his toils!
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If I cry out upon that my wrongs, there is none to hear me, none to take cognisance of my plea;
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my path hedged in, so that there is no escape, my direction lost, and I benighted.
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By him discredited, discrowned,
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by him left defenceless on every side, I go my ways; a tree torn up by the roots has more to hope for than I.
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Against me all his anger is aroused; I am that enemy
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against whom he musters all his forces, to ride over me, to beleaguer my dwelling place.
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Sundered am I from my brethren, a stranger to all that knew me,
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forsaken by my kindred, by my friends forgotten.
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Guests that dwell in my house, ay, and the very serving-women, stare at me, the alien, the unknown;
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my servants do not come at my call, I must speak them fair;
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my wife shuns the breath of me, to my own flesh and blood✻ I am a suppliant.
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The very innocents✻ despise me, jeer at me when my back is turned;
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no counsellor so trusted but he is weary of me, no friend so loved but he abandons me now.
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And I so wasted! Skin clinging to bone, save where the lips cover my teeth, is all that is left of me.✻
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Friends, friends, do you at least have pity, now when God’s hand has fallen on me!
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Would you take part in God’s hue and cry against me, slander me to your hearts’ content?✻
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Could but these words of mine be written down in a book,
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graven with a pen of iron upon tablets of lead, chiselled on hard flint!✻
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This at least I know, that one lives on who will vindicate me, rising up from the dust when the last day comes.✻
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Once more my skin shall clothe me, and in my flesh I shall have sight of God.✻
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I myself, with my own eyes; it will not be something other than myself that sees him. Deep in my heart is this hope reposed.✻
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You that would raise the hue and cry, finding matter of complaint against me,
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should rather take flight yourselves, the sword at your heels; the sword that avenges wrong, proof to you that justice shall be done.
