איוב י״טJob 19
Job said in reply:
How long will you grieve my spirit,
And crush me with words?
Time and again you humiliate me,
And are not ashamed to abuse me.
If indeed I have erred,
My error remains with me.
Though you are overbearing toward me,
Reproaching me with my disgrace,
Yet know that God has wronged me,
And has thrown up siege works around me.
I cry, “Violence!” but am not answered;
I shout, but can get no justice.
My way has been barred; I cannot pass;
Darkness has been laid upon my path.
My glory has been stripped from me,
The crown removed from my head.
[God] tears down every part of me; I perish;
My hopes are uprooted like a tree.
God’s anger is kindled against me;
I am regarded as a foe.
Heavenly troops advance together;
They build their road toward me
And encamp around my tent.
My kin have been alienated from me;
My acquaintances disown me.
My relatives are gone;
My friends have forgotten me.
My dependents and maidservants regard me as a stranger;
I am an outsider to them.
I summon my servant but he does not respond;
I must myself entreat him.
My odor is repulsive to my wife;
I am loathsome to my children.
Even youngsters disdain me;
When I rise, they speak against me.
All my bosom friends detest me;
Those I love have turned against me.
My bones stick to my skin and flesh;
I escape with the skin of my teeth.
Pity me, pity me! You are my friends;
For the hand of God has struck me!
Why do you pursue me like God,
Maligning me insatiably?
O that my words were written down;
Would they were inscribed in a record,
Incised on a rock forever
With iron stylus and lead!
But I know that my Vindicator lives,
And in the end will testify on earth—
This, after my skin will have been peeled off.
But I would behold God while still in my flesh,
I myself, not another, would do so;
Would see with my own eyes:
My heart pines within me.
You say, “How do we persecute him?
The root of the matter is in him.”
Be in fear of the sword,
For [your] fury is iniquity worthy of the sword;
Know there is a judgment!