Then Job replied:

"How long will you torment me and crush me with words?

Ten times now you have reproached me; shamelessly you attack me.

If it is true that I have gone astray, my error remains my concern alone.

If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my humiliation against me,

then know that God has wronged me and drawn his net around me.

"Though I cry, 'I've been wronged!' I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice.

He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; he has shrouded my paths in darkness.

He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head.

He tears me down on every side till I am gone; he uproots my hope like a tree.

His anger burns against me; he counts me among his enemies.

His troops advance in force; they build a siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent.

"He has alienated my brothers from me; my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.

My kinsmen have gone away; my friends have forgotten me.

My guests and my maidservants count me a stranger; they look upon me as an alien.

I summon my servant, but he does not answer, though I beg him with my own mouth.

My breath is offensive to my wife; I am loathsome to my own brothers.

Even the little boys scorn me; when I appear, they ridicule me.

All my intimate friends detest me; those I love have turned against me.

I am nothing but skin and bones; I have escaped with only the skin of my teeth.

"Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.

Why do you pursue me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh?

"Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll,

that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever!

I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.

And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;

I myself will see him with my own eyes--I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

"If you say, 'How we will hound him, since the root of the trouble lies in him,'

you should fear the sword yourselves; for wrath will bring punishment by the sword, and then you will know that there is judgment."