[1] Then Job answered:
[2] “How long will you hurt me and break me with words?
[3] You have insulted me ten times now. You show no shame when you attack me!
[4] Even if I have sinned, it is my problem. It does not hurt you.
[5] You just want to make yourselves look better than me. You say that my troubles are my own fault.
[6] But it is God who did wrong to me. He set his trap to catch me.
[7] I shout, 'He hurt me!’ But I get no answer. Even if I call loudly for help, no person hears my cry for fairness.
[8] God has blocked my way so I can’t go through. He has hidden my path in darkness.
[9] God took away my honor. He took the crown from my head.
[10] God hits me from every side until I am finished. He takes away my hope like a tree pulled up by the roots.
[11] God’s anger burns against me. He calls me his enemy.
[12] God sends his army to attack me. They build attack towers around me. They camp around my tent.
[13] “God has made my brothers hate me. I am a stranger to all my friends.
[14] My relatives have left me. My friends have forgotten me.
[15] Visitors in my home and my girl servants look at me like I am a stranger and a foreigner.
[16] I call for my servant, but he does not answer. Even if I beg for help, my servant will not answer.
[17] My wife hates the smell of my breath. My own brothers hate me.
[18] Even little children make fun of me. When I come near them, they say bad things to me.
[19] All my close friends hate me. Even the people I love turned against me.
[20] “I am so thin, my skin hangs loose on my bones. I have little life left in me.
[21] “Pity me, my friends, pity me! Why? Because God is against me.
[22] Why do you persecute me like God does? Don’t you get tired of hurting me?
[23] “I wish someone would remember what I say and write it in a book. I wish my words were written on a scroll.
[24] I wish the things I say were carved with an iron tool on lead or scratched on a rock so they would last forever.
[25] I know there is someone to defend me. I know he lives! And in the end he will stand here on earth and defend me.
[26] After I leave my body and my skin has been destroyed, I know I will still see God.
[27] I will see God with my own eyes. I myself, not someone else, will see God, And I can’t tell you how excited that makes me feel!
[28] “Maybe you will say, 'We will bother Job. We will find a reason to blame him!’
[29] But you yourselves should be afraid of the sword! Why? Because God punishes guilty people. God will use the sword to punish you. Then you will know that there is a time of judgment.”