1 Job said:
2 How long will you torture mewith your words?
3 Isn't ten times enoughfor you to accuse me?Aren't you ashamed?
4 Even if I have sinned,you haven't been harmed.
5 You boast of your goodness,claiming I am sufferingbecause I am guilty.
6 But God is the one at faultfor finding fault with me.
7 Though I pray to be rescuedfrom this torment,no whisper of justiceanswers me.
8 God has me trappedwith a wall of darkness
9 and stripped of respect.
10 God rips me apart,uproots my hopes,
11 and attacks with fierce anger,as though I were his enemy.
12 His entire army advances,then surrounds my tent.*
13 God has turned relativesand friends against me,
14 and I am forgotten.
15 My guests and my servantsconsider me a stranger,
16 and when I call my servants,they pay no attention.
17 My breath disgusts my wife;everyone in my familyturns away.
18 Young children can't stand me,and when I come near,they make fun.
19 My best friends and loved oneshave turned from me.
20 I am skin and bones—just barely alive.
21 My friends, I beg you for pity!God has made me his target.
22 Hasn't he already done enough?Why do you join the attack?
23 I wish that my wordscould be written down
24 or chiseled into rock.
25 I know that my Protector lives,and at the endhe will stand on this earth.
26 My flesh may be destroyed,yet from this bodyI will see God.
27 Yes, I will see him for myself,and I long for that moment.
28 My friends, you think up waysto blame and torment me, sayingI brought it on myself.
29 But watch out for the judgment,when God will punish you!