Read | Job 19:1–29
Then Job answered:
How long will you torment me
and crush me with words?
You have humiliated me ten times now,
and you mistreat me without shame.
Even if it is true that I have sinned,
my mistake concerns only me.
If you really want to appear superior to me
and would use my disgrace as evidence against me,
then understand that it is God who has wronged me
and caught me in his net.
I cry out, “Violence!” but get no response;
I call for help, but there is no justice.
He has blocked my way so that I cannot pass through;
he has veiled my paths with darkness.
He has stripped me of my honor
and removed the crown from my head.
He tears me down on every side so that I am ruined.
He uproots my hope like a tree.
His anger burns against me,
and he regards me as one of his enemies.
His troops advance together;
they construct a ramp against me
and camp around my tent.
He has removed my brothers from me;
my acquaintances have abandoned me.
My relatives stop coming by,
and my close friends have forgotten me.
My house guests and female servants regard me as a stranger;
I am a foreigner in their sight.
I call for my servant, but he does not answer,
even if I beg him with my own mouth.
My breath is offensive to my wife,
and my own family finds me repulsive.
Even young boys scorn me.
When I stand up, they mock me.
All of my best friends despise me,
and those I love have turned against me.
My skin and my flesh cling to my bones;
I have escaped with only the skin of my teeth.
Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy,
for God’s hand has struck me.
Why do you persecute me as God does?
Will you never get enough of my flesh?
I wish that my words were written down,
that they were recorded on a scroll
or were inscribed in stone forever
by an iron stylus and lead!
But I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the end he will stand on the dust.
Even after my skin has been destroyed,
yet I will see God in my flesh.
I will see him myself;
my eyes will look at him, and not as a stranger.
My heart longs within me.
If you say, “How will we pursue him,
since the root of the problem lies with him?”
then be afraid of the sword,
because wrath brings punishment by the sword,
so that you may know there is a judgment.
Click here to listen to the Scripture in ESV.
What does Job put his hope in even while being brutally honest about the suffering he is going through? What might it look like for you to do the same?
Focus
Listen to this song which takes the words, themes, and ideas from this passage and its broader book and makes them like a prayer put to music: Where Were You // A song about suffering, inspired by the book of Job.
Pray
Craft your own prayer based on today’s Scripture passage, and what you’ve learned about praying Scripture this week and from the song today. Consider reading the passage out loud, then pause and pray, putting this Scripture into your own words.
Using Scripture to pray can vocalize what’s in our hearts when words are hard to find. It can help us pray about the experiences we often avoid talking about but the Bible doesn’t. Using the words of Scripture in prayer can align our minds, hearts, and wills with God.
Going Deeper
If you are also following the BibleProject’s One Story That Leads to Jesus reading plan, complete today’s reading.
