OLD TESTAMENT READING (First Reading)

    2.    Job 19:1, 23-27a

A Reading from the Book of Job

Job answered Bildad the Shuhite and said:
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.