¹Then Job answered and said,

²“How long will you afflict my being

And crush me with your words?

³You have put me to shame these ten times

And are still not ashamed

That you alienate me like this.

⁴But even if it were true that I have erred,

My sense of error would remain with me.

⁵If you really will act proudly against me,

And argue against me on the grounds of my reproachful state,

⁶Know that God has overthrown me

And has cast his net around me.

⁷Behold, I call out,

‘It is wrong’,

But I am not answered.

I cry out,

But there is no process of judgment.

⁸He has fenced in my way

So that I cannot pass across,

And he has put darkness on my paths.

⁹He has stripped me of my honour,

And he has removed the crown from my head.

¹⁰He has demolished me all around,

And I have melted,

And he has removed my hope like a tree.

¹¹And he has kindled his wrath against me,

And he has considered me as one of his adversaries.

¹²His troops come together

And raise up their highway against me

And encamp around my tent.

¹³He has removed my brothers from me,

And my acquaintances are thoroughly estranged from me.

¹⁴My relatives have disowned me,

And my colleagues have forgotten me.

¹⁵Those who dwell in my house and my handmaids

Consider me a stranger;

I have become a foreigner in their sight.

¹⁶I call my servant,

But he does not answer;

I implore him with my instructions.

¹⁷My breath is loathsome to my wife,

And I am abominable to the sons of my loins.

¹⁸Even young children reject me;

When I appear,

They jeer at me.

¹⁹All the members of my secret counsel abhor me,

And they whom I loved have turned against me.

²⁰My bones cleave to my skin and flesh,

And I survive by the skin of my teeth.

²¹Have pity on me,

Have pity on me, my friends,

For the hand of God has struck me.

²²Why do you persecute me like God,

And why are you not satisfied with the state of my flesh?

²³If only my words could be written down now;

If only they could be inscribed in a book.

²⁴If only they could be engraved in rock in perpetuity,

With an iron stylus, and lead filled.

²⁵But I know that my redeemer lives,

And that in the end time he will appear on earth,

²⁶And that after my skin has been destroyed like this,

I will in my flesh yet behold God,

²⁷Whom I shall behold for myself,

And my eyes will see one

Who is not a stranger,

For whom my heart pines deeply.

²⁸For you will say,

‘Why did we persecute him?’

Is the root of the matter to be found in me?

²⁹Fear the sword,

For the punishments of the sword are full of fury,

In order that you may know that there is justice.”