1 T hen Job answered and said,

2 H ow long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?

3 T hese ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.

4 A nd be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.

5 I f indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:

6 k now now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.

7 B ehold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.

8 H e hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.

9 H e hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.

10 H e hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.

11 H e hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.

12 H is troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.

13 H e hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.

14 M y kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.

15 T hey that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.

16 I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.

17 M y breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body.

18 Y ea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.

19 A ll my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.

20 M y bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

21 H ave pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.

22 W hy do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

23 O h that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!

24 T hat they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!

25 F or I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

26 a nd though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

27 w hom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

28 B ut ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?

29 B e ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.