1 T hen Job answered,

2 “ How long will you torment me, and crush me with words?

3 Y ou have reproached me ten times. You aren’t ashamed that you attack me.

4 I f it is true that I have erred, my error remains with myself.

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

6 k now now that God has subverted me, and has surrounded me with his net.

7 “ Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard. I cry for help, but there is no justice.

8 H e has walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and 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 broken me down on every side, and I am gone. My hope he has plucked up like a tree.

11 H e has also kindled his wrath against me. He counts me among his adversaries.

12 H is troops come on together, build a siege ramp against me, and encamp around my tent.

13 “ He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.

14 M y relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me.

15 T hose who dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger. I am an alien in their sight.

16 I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer. I beg him with my mouth.

17 M y breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.

18 E ven young children despise me. If I arise, they speak against me.

19 A ll my familiar friends abhor me. They whom I loved have turned against me.

20 M y bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

21 “ Have pity on me, have pity on me, you my friends; for the hand of God has touched me.

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

23 “ Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

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

25 B ut as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.

26 A fter my skin is destroyed, then in my flesh shall I see God,

27 W hom I, even I, shall see on my side. My eyes shall see, and not as a stranger. “My heart is consumed within me.

28 I f you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’ because the root of the matter is found in me,

29 b e afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.”