19
1 Then Iyov answered and said,
2 How long will ye torment my nefesh,
and crush me with words?
3 These ten times have ye reproached me;
ye have no bushah that ye cause me astonishment.
4 And be it indeed that I have erred,
mine meshugah (error) remaineth with myself.
5 If indeed ye will magnify yourselves above me,
and use against me my cherpah (reproach, humiliation),
6 Have da'as now that Eloah hath put me in the wrong,
and hath encompassed me with his matzud (net).
7 Behold, when I cry chamas, I am not heard;
I cry for help, but there is no mishpat.
8 He hath fenced around my way that I cannot pass,
and set choshech in my paths.
9 He hath stripped me of my kavod,
and taken the ateret from my rosh.
10 He breaks me down on every side till I am gone,
and mine tikveh hath He uprooted like an etz.
11 He hath also kindled His wrath against me,
and He counteth me unto Him as His tzar (enemy).
12 His forces come together,
and raise up their siege ramp against me,
and encamp around my ohel.
13 He hath put achai (my brethren) far from me,
and mine acquaintances are verily estranged from me.
14 My kerov (near and dear) have failed,
and my familiar friends have forgotten me.
15 They that dwell in mine bais, and my maidservants, count me for a zar;
I am a nokhri in their sight.
16 I summoned avdi, and he gave me no answer;
I entreated him with my mouth.
17 My ruach is repulsive to my isha,
loathsome to bnei beten of mine.
18 Even avilim (little children) treat me with contempt;
I appear, and they ridicule me.
19 All my metei sod (confidants) detest me,
and they whom I loved are turned against me.
20 My etzem cleaveth to my ohr (skin)
and to my basar,
and I am escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
21 Channuni, channuni,
O ye my friends;
for the yad Eloah hath touched me.
22 Why do ye persecute me like El,
not satisfied with my basar?
23 Oh that my words were but written!
O that they were recorded in a sefer!
24 That they were engraved with a pen of barzel
and with oferet (lead) in the tzur forever!
25 For Ani yadati Goeli chai (I know that my Redeemer liveth),
and that he shall stand up at Acharon (at the Last) upon aphar (dust, the earth);
26 And though after my ohr (skin) has been thus destroyed,
yet from my basar I shall see Eloah;
27 Whom I shall see for myself,
and mine eyes shall behold and no other;
my heart faints within me.
28 But ye think, How we will persecute him,
seeing the shoresh (root) of the matter is found in me?
29 Be ye afraid of the cherev;
for wrath bringeth the avonot (punishments) of the cherev,
that ye may know there is a judgment.