1 T hen Job answered,

Then Job answered and said,

2 “ How long will you make me suffer and crush me with words?

How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?

3 T en times you have put me to shame and are not ashamed to wrong me.

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

4 E ven if it is true that I have done wrong, it stays with me.

And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.

5 Y ou put yourselves up high against me, and try to prove my shame to me.

If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:

6 Y ou will know then that God has wronged me, and has set a trap around me.

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

7 “ See, I cry, ‘Someone is hurting me!’ but I get no answer. I call for help, but no one stands for what is right and fair.

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

8 H e has built a wall in my way so that I cannot pass. And He has put darkness on my paths.

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

9 H e has taken my honor from me, and taken the crown from my head.

He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.

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

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

11 H e has made His anger burn against me, and thinks of me as one who fights against Him.

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

12 H is armies come together and build a path against me. They camp around my tent.

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

13 “ He has taken my brothers far away from me and my friends have all left me.

He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.

14 M y brothers have left me, and my close friends have forgotten me.

My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.

15 T hose who live in my house and my women servants think of me as a stranger. I am like one from another country in their eyes.

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

16 I call to my servant, but he does not answer. I have to beg him.

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

17 M y breath smells bad to my wife, and I am hated by my own brothers.

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

18 E ven young children hate me. When I get up they speak against me.

Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.

19 A ll my friends hate me. Those I love have turned against me.

All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.

20 I am only skin and flesh. And I have gotten away only by the skin of my teeth.

My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped 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 hit me.

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

22 W hy do you make it hard for me as God does? Have I not suffered enough to please you?

Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

23 “ If only my words were written! If only they were written down in a book!

Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!

24 I f only they were cut forever into the rock with an iron cutter and lead!

That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!

25 B ut as for me, I know that the One Who bought me and made me free from sin lives, and that He will stand upon the earth in the end.

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

26 E ven after my skin is destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.

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

27 I myself will see Him. With my own eyes I will see Him and not another. My heart becomes weak within me.

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

28 I f you say, ‘How will we make it hard for him?’ and, ‘The root of the problem is in him,’

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

29 y ou should be afraid of the sword for yourselves. For anger is punished by the sword, that you may know there is punishment for wrong-doing.”

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