Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!
The passage expresses a fervent wish for the speaker’s words to be permanently recorded, like an inscription in rock. It then declares a strong belief in a living Redeemer who will ultimately stand on earth, and the speaker’s hope to see God with their own eyes after their death.