Job: My Redeemer Lives

1But Job answered by saying:

2How long will you afflict my soul and wear me down with words?

3So, ten times you confound me and are not ashamed to oppress me.

4Now, of course, if I have been ignorant, my ignorance will be with me.

5But you have risen up against me, and you accuse me to my disgrace.

6At least now you should understand that God has not afflicted me with a balanced judgment, though he has encompassed me with his scourges.

7Behold, I will cry out, enduring violence, and no one will hear. I will announce loudly, but there is no one who may judge.

8He has hemmed in my path, and I cannot pass; he has added darkness to my difficult path.

9He has plundered me of my glory, and he has stolen the crown from my head.

10He has destroyed me on every side, and I am lost, and, like an uprooted tree, he has taken away my hope.

11His fury has raged against me, and in this way he has treated me like his enemy.

12His troops have gathered together, and they have made their way to me, and they have besieged my tabernacle all around.

13He has put my brothers far from me, and my friends have withdrawn from me like strangers.

14My kinsmen have forsaken me, and those who knew me, have forgotten me.

15The inhabitants of my house and my maidservants treat me just as if I were a stranger, and I have been like an sojourner in their eyes.

16I called my servant, and he did not respond; I pleaded with him with my own mouth.

17My wife has shuddered at my breath, and I have begged the sons of my loins.

18Even the foolish have looked down on me, and, when I withdrew from them, they spoke ill of me.

19Those who were sometime my counselors, treat me like an abomination; and he whom I valued the most has turned against me.

20Since my flesh has been consumed, my bone adheres to my skin, and only my lips have been left around my teeth.

21Have mercy on me, have compassion on me, at least you my friends, because the hand of the Lord has touched me.

22Why do you pursue me just as God does, and satiate yourselves with my flesh?

23Who will grant to me that my words may be written down? Who will grant to me that they may be inscribed in a book,

24with an iron pen and a plate of lead, or else be carved in stone?

25For I know that my Redeemer lives, and on the last day I will rise out of the earth.

26And I will be enveloped again with my skin, and in my flesh I will see my God.

27It is he whom I myself will see, and he whom my eyes will behold, and no other. This, my hope, has taken rest in my bosom.

28Why then do you now say: “Let us pursue him, and let us find a basis to speak against him?”

29So then, flee from the face of the sword, for the sword is the avenger of iniquities; but know this: there is to be a judgment.