A reading from
the Book of Job 19:21-27
Job said:/ Pity me, pity me, O you my friends,/ for the hand of God has struck me!/ Why do you hound me as though you were divine,/ and insatiably prey upon me?
Oh, would that my words were written down!/ Would that they were inscribed in a record:/ That with an iron chisel and with lead/ they were cut in the rock forever!/ But as for me, I know that my Vindicator lives,/ and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust;/ Whom I myself shall see:/ my own eyes, not another’s, shall behold him,/ And from my flesh I shall see God;/ my inmost being is consumed with longing.
The word of the Lord.
