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[1]Then Job answered and said:
[2]How long will you torment my soul, and break me in pieces with words?
[3]These ten times you have reproached me; you are not ashamed that you have wronged me.
[4]And if indeed I have erred, my error remains with me.
[5]If indeed you magnify yourselves against me, and adjudge my reproach against me,
[6]know then that God has bowed me, and has surrounded me with His net.
[7]Behold, I cry out concerning injustice, but I am not heard. I cry aloud, but there is no justice.
[8]He has fenced up my way, 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 breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; my hope He has uprooted like a tree.
[11]He has also kindled His wrath against me, and He counts me as one of His enemies.
[12]His troops come together and build up their road against me; they encamp all around my tent.
[13]He has removed my brothers far from me, and my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.
[14]My relatives have left, and my close friends have forgotten me.
[15]Those who dwell in my house, and my maidservants, count me as a stranger; I am a foreigner in their eyes.
[16]I have called my servant, but he does not answer; I implored him with my mouth.
[17]My breath is loathsome to my wife, and I must entreat the favor of children for the sake of my own body.
[18]Even young children despise me; I arise, and they speak against me.
[19]My circle of friends have abhorred me, and those whom I have loved have turned against me.
[20]My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
[21]Have pity on me! Have pity on me, O you my friends! For the hand of God has struck me!
[22]Why do you persecute me as the Mighty God does, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
[23]Oh, that my words were now written! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book!
[24]That they were forever engraved on a rock with an iron pen and lead!
[25]For I know that my Redeemer is alive, and He shall stand at the latter time upon the earth;
[26]and after my skin has been struck off from my flesh, I shall see God:
[27]Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not a stranger. O how my reins have been exhausted within me!
[28]If you should say, How shall we persecute him? since the root of the matter has been found in me,
[29]fear for yourselves because of the sword; for wrath brings the punishment of the sword; that you may know there is judgment.
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