1 A nd Job answereth and saith: --

2 T ill when do ye afflict my soul, And bruise me with words?

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

4 A nd also -- truly, I have erred, With me doth my error remain.

5 I f, truly, over me ye magnify yourselves, And decide against me my reproach;

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

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

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

9 M ine honour from off me He hath stripped, And He turneth the crown from my head.

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

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

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

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

14 C eased have my neighbours And my familiar friends have forgotten me,

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

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

17 M y spirit is strange to my wife, And my favours to the sons of my womb.

18 A lso sucklings have despised me, I rise, and they speak against me.

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

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

21 P ity me, pity me, ye my friends, For the hand of God hath stricken against me.

22 W hy do you pursue me as God? And with my flesh are not satisfied?

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

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

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

26 A nd after my skin hath compassed this, Then from my flesh I see God:

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

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

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