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 have you reproached me: you are not ashamed that you have wronged me.
4 And if indeed I have erred, my error remains with myself.
5 If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:
6 Know now that God has overthrown me, and has compassed me with his net.
7 Behold, I cry out concerning wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no justice.
8 He has fenced up my way 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 has destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and my hope has he removed like a tree.
11 He has also kindled his wrath against me, and he counts me unto him as one of his enemies.
12 His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tent.
13 He has put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
14 My kinsfolk have failed, and my close friends have forgotten me.
15 They that dwell in my house, and my maidservants, count me as a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.
16 I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I entreated him with my mouth.
17 My breath is repulsive to my wife, though I make supplication for the children of my own body.
18 Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spoke against me.
19 All my close friends abhorred me: and they whom I 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 upon me, have pity upon me, O you my friends; for the hand of God has touched me.
22 Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
23 Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!
24 That they were engraved with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever!
25 For I know that my redeemer lives, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
26 And though after my skin is thus destroyed, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
27 Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another; though my heart be consumed within me.
28 But you should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?
29 Be yourselves afraid of the sword: for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.