Then Job answered and said,

Then Job answered:

How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?

“How long will you torment me and crush me with your words?

These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.

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

And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.

Even if I have truly gone astray, my error concerns me alone.

If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:

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

Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.

then understand that it is God who has wronged me and drawn His net around me.

Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.

Though I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice.

He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.

He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; He has veiled my paths with darkness.

He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.

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

He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.

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

He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.

His anger burns against me, and He counts me among His enemies.

His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.

His troops advance together; they construct a ramp against me and encamp around my tent.

He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.

He has removed my brothers from me; my acquaintances have abandoned me.

My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.

My kinsmen have failed me, and my friends have forgotten me.

They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.

My guests and maidservants count me as a stranger; I am a foreigner in their sight.

I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.

I call for my servant, but he does not answer, though I implore him with my own mouth.

My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body.

My breath is repulsive to my wife, and I am loathsome to my own family.

Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.

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

All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.

All my best friends despise me, and those I love have turned against me.

My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

My skin and flesh cling to my bones; I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.

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

Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

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

Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!

I wish that my words were recorded and inscribed in a book,

That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!

by an iron stylus on lead, or chiseled in stone forever.

For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

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

And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.

Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

I will see Him for myself; my eyes will behold Him, and not as a stranger. How my heart yearns within me!

But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?

If you say, ‘Let us persecute him, since the root of the matter lies with him,’

Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.

then you should fear the sword yourselves, because wrath brings punishment by the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment.”