| | 1 | Then Job replied: | |
| | 2 | "How long will you torment me and crush me with words? | |
| | 3 | Ten times now you have reproached me; shamelessly you attack me. | |
| | 4 | If it is true that I have gone astray, my error remains my concern alone. | |
| | 5 | If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my humiliation against me, | |
| | 6 | then know that God has wronged me and drawn his net around me. | |
| | 7 | "Though I cry, 'I've been wronged!' I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice. | |
| | 8 | He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; he has shrouded my paths in darkness. | |
| | 9 | He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head. | |
| | 10 | He tears me down on every side till I am gone; he uproots my hope like a tree. | |
| | 11 | His anger burns against me; he counts me among his enemies. | |
| | 12 | His troops advance in force; they build a siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent. | |
| | 13 | "He has alienated my brothers from me; my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. | |
| | 14 | My kinsmen have gone away; my friends have forgotten me. | |
| | 15 | My guests and my maidservants count me a stranger; they look upon me as an alien. | |
| | 16 | I summon my servant, but he does not answer, though I beg him with my own mouth. | |
| | 17 | My breath is offensive to my wife; I am loathsome to my own brothers. | |
| | 18 | Even the little boys scorn me; when I appear, they ridicule me. | |
| | 19 | All my intimate friends detest me; those I love have turned against me. | |
| | 20 | I am nothing but skin and bones; I have escaped with only the skin of my teeth. | |
| | 21 | "Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me. | |
| | 22 | Why do you pursue me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh? | |
| | 23 | "Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, | |
| | 24 | that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever! | |
| | 25 | I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. | |
| | 26 | And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; | |
| | 27 | I myself will see him with my own eyes--I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! | |
| | 28 | "If you say, 'How we will hound him, since the root of the trouble lies in him,' | |
| | 29 | you should fear the sword yourselves; for wrath will bring punishment by the sword, and then you will know that there is judgment." | |
