¹Then Job answered ,

²“How long will you torment me ,

and crush me with words ?

³You have reproached me ten times .

You aren’t ashamed that you attack me .

⁴If it is true that I have erred ,

my error remains with myself.

⁵If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me ,

and plead against me my reproach ,

⁶know 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 .

⁸He has walled up my way so that I can ’t pass ,

and has set darkness in my paths .

⁹He has stripped me of my glory ,

and taken the crown from my head .

¹⁰He has broken me down on every side , and I am gone .

He has plucked my hope up like a tree .

¹¹He has also kindled his wrath against me .

He counts me amongst his adversaries .

¹²His 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 .

¹⁴My relatives have gone away.

My familiar friends have forgotten me .

¹⁵Those who dwell in my house and my maids consider me a stranger .

I am an alien in their sight .

¹⁶I call to my servant , and he gives me no answer .

I beg him with my mouth .

¹⁷My breath is offensive to my wife.

I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.

¹⁸Even young children despise me .

If I arise , they speak against me .

¹⁹All my familiar friends abhor me .

They whom I loved have turned against me .

²⁰My 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 .

²²Why 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 !

²⁴That with an iron pen and lead

they were engraved in the rock forever !

²⁵But as for me , I know that my Redeemer lives .

In the end, he will stand upon the earth .

²⁶After my skin is destroyed ,

then I will see God in my flesh ,

²⁷whom I , even I , will see on my side.

My eyes will see , and not as a stranger .

“My heart is consumed within me .

²⁸If you say , ‘How we will persecute him !’

because the root of the matter is found in me ,

²⁹be afraid of the sword ,

for wrath brings the punishments of the sword ,

that you may know there is a judgement.”