1 T hen Job answered:

And Job answereth and saith: --

2 H ow long will you vex and torment me and break me in pieces with words?

Till when do ye afflict my soul, And bruise me with words?

3 T hese ten times you have reproached me; you are not ashamed that you make yourselves strange.

These ten times ye put me to shame, ye blush not. Ye make yourselves strange to me --

4 A nd if it were true that I have erred, my error would remain with me.

And also -- truly, I have erred, With me doth my error remain.

5 I f indeed you magnify yourselves against me and plead against me my reproach and humiliation,

If, truly, over me ye magnify yourselves, And decide against me my reproach;

6 K now that God has overthrown and put me in the wrong and has closed His net about me.

Know now, that God turned me upside down, And His net against me hath set round,

7 B ehold, I cry out, Violence! but I am not heard; I cry aloud for help, but there is no justice.

Lo, I cry out -- violence, and am not answered, I cry aloud, and there is no judgment.

8 H e has walled up my way so that I cannot pass, and He has set darkness upon my paths.

My way He hedged up, and I pass not over, And on my paths darkness He placeth.

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

Mine honour from off me He hath stripped, And He turneth the crown from my head.

10 H e has broken me down on every side, and I am gone; my hope has He pulled up like a tree.

He breaketh me down round about, and I go, And removeth like a tree my hope.

11 H e has also kindled His wrath against me, and He counts me as one of His adversaries.

And He kindleth against me His anger, And reckoneth me to Him as His adversaries.

12 H is troops come together and cast up their way and siege works against me and encamp round about my tent.

Come in do His troops together, And they raise up against me their way, And encamp round about my tent.

13 H e has put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.

My brethren from me He hath put far off, And mine acquaintances surely Have been estranged from me.

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

Ceased have my neighbours And my familiar friends have forgotten me,

15 T hose who live temporarily in my house and my maids count me as a stranger; I am an alien in their sight.

Sojourners of my house and my maids, For a stranger reckon me: An alien I have been in their eyes.

16 I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer, though I beseech him with words.

To my servant I have called, And he doth not answer, With my mouth I make supplication to him.

17 I am repulsive to my wife and loathsome to the children of my own mother.

My spirit is strange to my wife, And my favours to the sons of my womb.

18 E ven young children despise me; when I get up, they speak against me.

Also sucklings have despised me, I rise, and they speak against me.

19 A ll the men of my council and my familiar friends abhor me; those whom I loved are turned against me.

Abominate me do all the men of my counsel, And those I have loved, Have been turned against me.

20 M y bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped with the skin or gums of my teeth.

To my skin and to my flesh Cleaved hath my bone, And I deliver myself with the skin of my teeth.

21 H ave pity on me! Have pity on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!

Pity me, pity me, ye my friends, For the hand of God hath stricken against me.

22 W hy do you, as if you were God, pursue and persecute me? why are you not satisfied with my flesh?

Why do you pursue me as God? And with my flesh are not satisfied?

23 O h, that the words I now speak were written! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book!

Who doth grant now, That my words may be written? Who doth grant that in a book they may be graven?

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

With a pen of iron and lead -- For ever in a rock they may be hewn.

25 F or I know that my Redeemer and Vindicator lives, and at last He will stand upon the earth.

That -- I have known my Redeemer, The Living and the Last, For the dust he doth rise.

26 A nd after my skin, even this body, has been destroyed, then from my flesh or without it I shall see God,

And after my skin hath compassed this, Then from my flesh I see God:

27 W hom I, even I, shall see for myself and on my side! And my eyes shall behold Him, and not as a stranger! My heart pines away and is consumed within me.

Whom I -- I see on my side, And mine eyes have beheld, and not a stranger, Consumed have been my reins in my bosom.

28 I f you say, How we will pursue him! that the root of all these is found in me,

But ye say, `Why do we pursue after him?' And the root of the matter hath been found in me.

29 T hen beware and be afraid of the sword, for wrathful are the punishments of that sword, that you may know there is a judgment.

Be ye afraid because of the sword, For furious the punishments of the sword, That ye may know that a judgment.