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.