Job 19
The full text of Job 19 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 Then Job answered and said:
2 How long will you torment me
and crush me with words?
3 These ten times you have reproached me;
you are not ashamed to wrong me.
4 And even if it is true that I have erred,
my error remains with me.
5 If indeed you magnify yourselves against me
and make my disgrace an argument against me,
6 know then that God has wronged me
and closed his net around me.
7 Behold, I cry out, 'Violence!' but am not answered;
I call for help, but there is no justice.
8 He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass,
and he has set darkness on my paths.
9 He has stripped me of my glory
and removed the crown from my head.
10 He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone;
he has uprooted my hope like a tree.
11 His anger burns against me;
he counts me among his adversaries.
12 His troops come together;
they have cast up their siege ramp against me
and encamped around my tent.
13 He has put my brothers far from me,
and my acquaintances have become wholly estranged from me.
14 My relatives have failed;
my close friends have forgotten me.
15 The guests of my house and my maidservants
count me as a stranger;
I have become a foreigner in their eyes.
16 I call to my servant, but he does not answer;
I have to plead with him with my mouth.
17 My breath is offensive to my wife;
I am repulsive to my own brothers.
18 Even young children despise me;
when I rise, they mock me.
19 All my intimate friends abhor me;
those whom I loved have turned against me.
20 My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh,
and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
21 Have pity on me, have pity on me, O my friends,
for the hand of God has touched me!
22 Why do you pursue me as God does?
Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?
23 Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book —
24 engraved in rock with an iron stylus and lead,
forever!
25 But I know that my Redeemer lives,
and that at the last he will stand upon the earth.
26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;
27 whom I myself will see,
my own eyes — not another's.
My heart faints within me!
28 If you say, 'How we will pursue him,'
and 'The root of the matter is found in him,'
you should fear the sword,
29 for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
that you may know there is a judgment.
Translation notes (13)
- Job 19:3a The phrase eser pe'amim, 'ten times', is a Hebrew idiom for repeated action rather than a literal count, as in Genesis 31:7 and Numbers 14:22. The verb tahkeru, rendered here as 'wrong', occurs only in this verse in the Hebrew Bible, and its precise sense is uncertain; 'wrong' or 'mistreat' follows the context of Job's complaint.
- Job 19:4a 'Error' translates meshuggati (מְשֻׁגָּתִי), from shagaʿ (שגה), 'to err, stray', a root often used for inadvertent offense (compare the legal term shegagah, 'unintentional sin'). 'Remains with me' is literally 'lodges with me' (talin itti), indicating the matter stays with him rather than constituting willful guilt.
- Job 19:6a The Hebrew metsudo (מְצוּדוֹ), 'his net', evokes the hunter's snare used to trap birds and game in the ancient Near East. Divine capture in a net was an established image of judgment; the Sumerian Stele of the Vultures depicts the god Ningirsu holding defeated enemies in a great net. Job inverts the convention, protesting that the innocent, not the guilty, has been ensnared.
- Job 19:12a The Hebrew verb salal (סלל), 'to cast up', describes raising an earthen ramp, the standard means by which ancient armies breached fortified city walls, a practice depicted in Assyrian reliefs of the siege of Lachish. The image is deliberately disproportionate: an army raises siegeworks not against a walled city but against a single tent.
- Job 19:15a Guests of my house reflects Hebrew gere beti, 'sojourners of my house' (גֵרֵי בֵיתִי), denoting resident aliens or long-term lodgers dependent on a household, not casual visitors. Maidservants renders Hebrew ʾamah, 'female slave/servant' (אָמָה). The pairing contrasts household dependents with enslaved staff, underscoring total social alienation.
- Job 19:17a Hebrew ruchi (רוּחִי) can mean either 'my breath' or 'my spirit'; the context of physical repulsion favors the bodily sense, perhaps a symptom of Job's disease. The phrase rendered here as 'my own brothers' is literally 'sons of my womb', usually understood as sons of the same mother's womb, though some interpreters take it to mean Job's children.
- Job 19:20a The Hebrew be'or shinnai, literally 'with the skin of my teeth', is obscure, since teeth have no skin; suggestions include the gums or an image of escaping with nothing at all. The phrase entered English as a proverb for a narrow escape through the King James tradition, and this verse is its source.
- Job 19:23a The Hebrew sefer, 'scroll' (ספר), rendered here as 'book', denotes a leather or papyrus roll rather than a codex. The verb is chaqaq, 'engrave' (חקק), a term for incising letters, anticipating the next verse's mention of an iron stylus and lead to ensure permanence. The King James tradition's 'printed' reflects 'impressed', not typographic printing.
- Job 19:24a The Hebrew ophereth, 'lead', most likely refers to the ancient practice of pouring molten lead into letters chiseled in rock, making the inscription both legible and durable. Job thus escalates from ink on a scroll to the most permanent writing medium known in his world, preparing for the confession of verse 25.
- Job 19:25a The Hebrew word 'go'el' means "kinsman-redeemer," referring to one who restores rights, ransoms, or vindicates. It remains deliberately ambiguous whether this refers to God, a heavenly advocate, or a messianic figure. The Trinity Bible Version preserves the translation "Redeemer" without resolving this ambiguity.
- Job 19:25b The phrase "upon the earth" (or "upon the dust") translates the Hebrew 'al aphar'. The word "the last" translates 'acharown', which may mean "at the last day" or "as the last/final one to stand."
- Job 19:26a The Hebrew phrase 'min besari' can mean "from my flesh" or "without my flesh," because the preposition 'min' is ambiguous. Both a physical resurrection (in the flesh) and a disembodied vision (from beyond flesh) are grammatically valid interpretations.
- Job 19:27a This can be translated as "My heart faints" or "My kidneys (reins) are consumed with longing within me," which is the meaning of the Hebrew 'kilu kilyotay beheqi'. This expresses the depth of longing that overwhelms Job.
About this translation
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