1 Job said:

2 How long will you torture me

with your words?

3 Isn't ten times enough

for 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 suffering

because I am guilty.

6 But God is the one at fault

for finding fault with me.

7 Though I pray to be rescued

from this torment,

no whisper of justice

answers me.

8 God has me trapped

with 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 relatives

and friends against me,

14 and I am forgotten.

15 My guests and my servants

consider me a stranger,

16 and when I call my servants,

they pay no attention.

17 My breath disgusts my wife;

everyone in my family

turns away.

18 Young children can't stand me,

and when I come near,

they make fun.

19 * My best friends and loved ones

have 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 words

could be written down

24 or chiseled into rock.

25 I know that my Protector* lives,

and at the end

he will stand on this earth.

26 My flesh may be destroyed,

yet from this body

I will see God.*

27 Yes, I will see him for myself,

and I long for that moment.

28 My friends, you think up ways

to blame and torment me, saying

I brought it on myself.

29 But watch out for the judgment,

when God will punish you!