[1] Then Job responded,
[2] “How long will you torment me And crush me with words?
[3] These ten times you have insulted me; You are not ashamed to wrong me.
[4] Even if I have truly erred, My error lodges with me.
[5] If indeed you vaunt yourselves against me And prove my disgrace to me,
[6] Know then that God has wronged me And has closed His net around me.
[7] Behold, I cry, ‘Violence!’ but I get no answer; I shout for help, but there is no justice.
[8] He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass, And He has put darkness on my paths.
[9] He has stripped my honor from me And removed the crown from my head.
[10] He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; And He has uprooted my hope like a tree.
[11] He has also kindled His anger against me And considered me as His enemy.
[12] His troops come together, And build up their way against me And camp around my tent.
[13] He has removed my brothers far from me, And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.
[14] My relatives have failed, And my intimate friends have forgotten me.
[15] Those who live in my house and my maids consider me a stranger. I am a foreigner in their sight.
[16] I call to my servant, but he does not answer; I have to implore him with my mouth.
[17] My breath is offensive to my wife, And I am loathsome to my own brothers.
[18] Even young children despise me; I rise up and they speak against me.
[19] All my associates abhor me, And those I love have turned against me.
[20] My bone clings to my skin and my flesh, And I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
[21] Pity me, pity me, O you my friends, For the hand of God has struck me.
[22] Why do you persecute me as God does, And are not satisfied with my flesh?
[23] Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
[24] That with an iron stylus and lead They were engraved in the rock forever!
[25] As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.
[26] Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God;
[27] Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart faints within me!
[28] If you say, ‘How shall we persecute him?’ And ‘What pretext for a case against him can we find?’
[29] Then be afraid of the sword for yourselves, For wrath brings the punishment of the sword, So that you may know there is judgment.”