Everything Is against Him

7“Behold, I cry, ‘Violence!’ but I get no answer;
         I shout for help, but there is no justice.

8“He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass,
         And He has put darkness on my paths.

9“He has stripped my honor from me
         And removed the crown from my head.

10“He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone;
         And He has uprooted my hope like a tree.

11“He has also kindled His anger against me
         And considered me as His enemy.

12“His troops come together,
         And build up their way against me
         And camp around my tent.

13“He has removed my brothers far from me,
         And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.

14“My relatives have failed,
         And my intimate friends have forgotten me.

15“Those who live in my house and my maids consider me a stranger.
         I am a foreigner in their sight.

16“I call to my servant, but he does not answer;
         I have to implore him with my mouth.

17“My breath is offensive to my wife,
         And I am loathsome to my own brothers.

18“Even young children despise me;
         I rise up and they speak against me.

19“All my associates abhor me,
         And those I love have turned against me.

20“My bone clings to my skin and my flesh,
         And I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.

21“Pity me, pity me, O you my friends,
         For the hand of God has struck me.

22“Why do you persecute me as God does,
         And are not satisfied with my flesh?

Job Says, “My Redeemer Lives”

23“Oh that my words were written!
         Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

24“That with an iron stylus and lead
         They were engraved in the rock forever!

25“As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
         And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.

26“Even after my skin is destroyed,
         Yet from my flesh I shall see God;

27Whom I myself shall behold,
         And whom my eyes will see and not another.
         My heart faints within me!

28“If you say, ‘How shall we persecute him?’
         And ‘What pretext for a case against him can we find?’

29“Then be afraid of the sword for yourselves,
         For wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
         So that you may know there is judgment.”

NASB ©1995