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[1]THEN Job answered and said,
[2]How long will you grieve my soul, and make me sick with words?
[3]For behold, these ten times you have rebuked me; and yet you are not ashamed that you make me sad.
[4]If indeed I have erred, my error remains with myself.
[5]If you have justly magnified yourselves against me, rebuked me, and reproached me,
[6]Know then that God has condemned me, and spread his net over me.
[7]If I howl, no one answers me; and if I complain, there is no one to avenge me
[8]He has fenced up my ways so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness in my paths.
[9]He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.
[10]He has destroyed me on every side, and I am no more; and my hope has he removed like a piece of tree.
[11]He has also kindled his wrath against me, and he counts me as his enemy.
[12]His messengers have come together against me; they debated their ways against me, and encamped round about my tent.
[13]My brothers are far off from me, and my acquaintances have deserted me.
[14]My kinsfolk have failed me, and my familiar friends have forsaken me.
[15]They that dwell in my house, and my maids, consider me as a stranger; I am an alien in their sight.
[16]I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I entreated him with my mouth and implored him.
[17]I have become a stranger to my wife, and have implored the children of my own body.
[18]Yea, even the wicked despise me; when I rise, they speak against me.
[19]All my counselors abhor me; even my friends have turned against me.
[20]My skin and my flesh cleave to my bones, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
[21]Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O you my friends; for the hand of God has been against me.
[22]Why do you also persecute me like God, and you are not satisfied with the hurt of my flesh
[23]Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a scroll!
[24]That they were engraved with an iron pen on lead or in the rock for ever!
[25]For I know that my Saviour lives, and at the end he will reveal himself upon the earth;
[26]Although devouring worms have covered my skin and my flesh,
[27]Yet, if my eyes shall see God, then my heart also will see the light; but now my body is consumed.
[28]For you will say, Why did we persecute him? For a good report will follow me and vindicate me.
[29]Spare yourselves from the sword; for the wrath of sinners is a sword; for you shall yet know that there is judgment
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