Job 17-19

American Standard Version

³ Give now a pledge, be surety for me with thyself;
Who is there that will strike hands with me?
⁴ For thou hast hid their heart from understanding:
Therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
⁵ He that denounceth his friends for a ^[b]prey,
Even the eyes of his children shall fail.

⁶ But he hath made me a byword of the people;
And they spit in my face.
⁷ Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow,
And all my members are as a shadow.
⁸ Upright men shall be astonished at this,
And the innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.
⁹ Yet shall the righteous hold on his way,
And he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger.
¹⁰ But as for you all, come on now again;
^[c]And I shall not find a wise man among you.
¹¹ My days are past, my purposes are broken off,
Even the ^[d]thoughts of my heart.
¹² They change the night into day:
The light, say they, is near ^[e]unto the darkness.
¹³ If I ^[f]look for Sheol as my house;
If I have spread my couch in the darkness;
¹⁴ If I have said to ^[g]corruption, Thou art my father;
To the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister;
¹⁵ Where then is my hope?
And as for my hope, who shall see it?
¹⁶ It shall go down to the bars of Sheol,
When once there is rest in the dust.

² How long will ye hunt for words?
Consider, and afterwards we will speak.
³ Wherefore are we counted as beasts,
And are become unclean in your sight?
⁴ Thou that tearest thyself in thine anger,
Shall the earth be forsaken for thee?
Or shall the rock be removed out of its place?

⁵ Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out,
And the ^[h]spark of his fire shall not shine.
⁶ The light shall be dark in his tent,
And his lamp ^[i]above him shall be put out.
⁷ The steps of his strength shall be straitened,
And his own counsel shall cast him down.
⁸ For he is cast into a net by his own feet,
And he walketh upon the toils.
⁹ A gin shall take him by the heel,
And a snare shall lay hold on him.
¹⁰ A noose is hid for him in the ground,
And a trap for him in the way.
¹¹ Terrors shall make him afraid on every side,
And shall chase him at his heels.
¹² His strength shall be hunger-bitten,
And calamity shall be ready ^[j]at his side.
¹³ The ^[k]members of his body shall be devoured,
Yea, the first-born of death shall devour his members.
¹⁴ He shall be rooted out of his tent wherein he trusteth;
And ^[l]he shall be brought to the king of terrors.
^15 [m]There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his:
Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.
¹⁶ His roots shall be dried up beneath,
And above shall his branch ^[n]be cut off.
¹⁷ His remembrance shall perish from the earth,
And he shall have no name in the street.
¹⁸ He shall be driven from light into darkness,
And chased out of the world.
¹⁹ He shall have neither son nor son’s son among his people,
Nor any remaining where he sojourned.
^20 [o]They that come after shall be astonished at his day,
As they that went before ^[p]were affrighted.
²¹ Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous,
And this is the place of him that knoweth not God.

² How long will ye vex my soul,
And break me in pieces with words?
³ These ten times have ye reproached me:
Ye are not ashamed that ye deal hardly with me.
⁴ And be it indeed that I have erred,
Mine error remaineth with myself.
^5 [q]If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me,
And plead against me my reproach;
⁶ Know now that God hath ^[r]subverted me in my cause,
And hath compassed me with his net.

⁷ Behold, I ^[s]cry out of wrong, but I am not heard:
I cry for help, but there is no justice.
⁸ He hath walled up my way that I cannot pass,
And hath set darkness in my paths.
⁹ He hath stripped me of my glory,
And taken the crown from my head.
¹⁰ He hath broken me down on every side, and I am gone;
And my hope hath he plucked up like a tree.
¹¹ He hath also kindled his wrath against me,
And he counteth me unto him as one of his adversaries.
¹² His troops come on together,
And cast up their way against me,
And encamp round about my tent.

¹³ He hath put my brethren far from me,
And mine acquaintance are wholly estranged from me.
¹⁴ My kinsfolk have failed,
And my familiar friends have forgotten me.
¹⁵ They that ^[t]dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger:
I am an alien in their sight.
¹⁶ I call unto my servant, and he giveth me no answer,
Though I entreat him with my mouth.
¹⁷ My breath is strange to my wife,
And ^[u]my supplication to the children ^[v]of mine own mother.
¹⁸ Even young children despise me;
If I arise, they speak against me.
¹⁹ All ^[w]my familiar friends abhor me,
And they whom I loved are turned against me.
²⁰ My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh,
And I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
²¹ Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends;
For the hand of God hath touched me.
²² Why do ye persecute me as God,
And are not satisfied with my flesh?

²³ Oh that my words were now written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
²⁴ That with an iron pen and lead
They were graven in the rock for ever!
^25 [x]But as for me I know that my ^[y]Redeemer liveth,
And at last he will stand up upon the ^[z]earth:
^26 [aa]And after my skin, even this body, is destroyed,
Then without my flesh shall I see God;
²⁷ Whom I, even I, shall see, ^[ab]on my side,
And mine eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger.
My ^[ac]heart is consumed within me.
²⁸ If ye say, How we will persecute him!
And that the root of the matter is found in me;
²⁹ Be ye afraid of the sword:
For ^[ad]wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword,
That ye may know there is a judgment.