19:1   Why do you keep tormenting me with words?

19:2   (SEE 19:1)

19:3   Time after time you insult me and show no shame for the way you abuse me.

19:4   Even if I have done wrong, how does that hurt you?

19:5   You think you are better than I am, and regard my troubles as proof of my guilt.

19:6   Can't you see it is God who has done this? He has set a trap to catch me.

19:7   I protest his violence, but no one is listening; no one hears my cry for justice.

19:8   God has blocked the way, and I can't get through; he has hidden my path in darkness.

19:9   He has taken away all my wealth and destroyed my reputation.

19:10   He batters me from every side. He uproots my hope and leaves me to wither and die.

19:11   God is angry and rages against me; he treats me like his worst enemy.

19:12   He sends his army to attack me; they dig trenches and lay siege to my tent.

19:13   God has made my own family forsake me; I am a stranger to those who knew me;

19:14   my relatives and friends are gone.

19:15   Those who were guests in my house have forgotten me; my servant women treat me like a stranger and a foreigner.

19:16   When I call a servant, he doesn't answer--- even when I beg him to help me.

19:17   My wife can't stand the smell of my breath, and my own brothers won't come near me.

19:18   Children despise me and laugh when they see me.

19:19   My closest friends look at me with disgust; those I loved most have turned against me.

19:20   My skin hangs loose on my bones; I have barely escaped with my life.

19:21   You are my friends! Take pity on me! The hand of God has struck me down.

19:22   Why must you persecute me the way God does? Haven't you tormented me enough?

19:23   How I wish that someone would remember my words and record them in a book!

19:24   Or with a chisel carve my words in stone and write them so that they would last forever.

19:25   But I know there is someone in heaven who will come at last to my defense.

19:26   Even after my skin is eaten by disease, while still in this body I will see God.

19:27   I will see him with my own eyes, and he will not be a stranger. My courage failed because you said,

19:28   "How can we torment him?" You looked for some excuse to attack me.

19:29   But now, be afraid of the sword--- the sword that brings God's wrath on sin, so that you will know there is one who judges.