1 ¶ And Job replied and said,

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

3 T hese ten times ye have reproached me; are ye not ashamed to make yourselves strange to me?

4 A nd if indeed I have erred, my error shall remain with me.

5 I f indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me and reprove me of my reproach,

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

7 B ehold, I shall cry out that I have been wronged, and I shall not be heard; I shall cry aloud, and there shall be no judgment.

8 ¶ He has walled off my way and I shall not pass, and he has set darkness in my paths.

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

10 H e has pulled me up on every side, and I am dried up; he has caused my hope to pass like an uprooted tree.

11 H e has kindled his wrath against me, and he counted me unto him as one of his enemies.

12 H is troops came together and raised up their way over me and encamp round about my tent.

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

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

15 T hose that dwell in my house and my maids have counted me for a stranger; I was an alien in their sight.

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

17 M y spirit came to be strange to my wife, although I intreated her for the sons of my own body.

18 E ven the young children despised me; as I arose, they spoke against me.

19 A ll my intimate friends abhorred me; and those whom I loved are turned against me.

20 M y bones cleave 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 has touched me.

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

23 ¶ Oh, 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 lives and that he shall rise at the latter day over the dust;

26 a nd afterward from this, my stricken skin and from my own flesh, I must see God:

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

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

29 B e ye afraid of the sword; for the wrath of the sword comes because of the iniquities, that ye may know there is a judgment.