1 Then Job answered and said:

2 "How long will you torment me

and break me in pieces with words?

3 These *Gen. 31:7ten times you have cast reproach upon me;

are you not ashamed to wrong me?

4 And even if it be true that I have erred,

my error remains with myself.

5 If indeed you *Ps. 35:26;38:16;55:12magnify yourselves against me

and make my disgrace an argument against me,

6 know then that God has *[ch. 8:3;34:12;Lam. 3:36]put me in the wrong

and closed his net about me.

7 Behold, I *ch. 24:12;Hab. 1:2;[Lam. 3:8]cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered;

I call for help, but there is no justice.

8 He has *Lam. 3:7,9;Hos. 2:6;[ch. 3:23; 13:27]walled up my way, so that I cannot pass,

and he has set darkness upon my paths.

9 He has *Ps. 89:44stripped from me my glory

and taken the *Ps. 89:39;Lam. 5:16;[ch. 29:14]crown from my head.

10 He breaks me down on every side, and I *ch. 27:21;[ch. 10:21;14:20]am gone,

and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.

11 He has kindled his wrath against me

and *See ch. 13:24counts me as his adversary.

12 His *[ch. 10:17;25:2] troops come on together;

they have *ch. 30:12cast up their siege ramp*19:12 Hebrew their way against me

and encamp around my tent.

13 "He has put my *Ps. 69:8;[ch. 6:15] brothers far from me,

and *[Ps. 31:11;88:8,18]those who knew me are wholly estranged from me.

14 My relatives *Ps. 38:11have failed me,

my close *Ps. 55:13friends have forgotten me.

15 The guests *[Gen. 17:27;Matt. 10:36]in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger;

I have become a foreigner in their eyes.

16 I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;

I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.

17 My breath is strange to my *ch. 2:9wife,

and I am a stench to the children of *ch. 3:10my own mother.

18 Even young *[2 Kgs. 2:23]children despise me;

when I rise they talk against me.

19 All my *[Ps. 41:9;55:13,14]intimate friends abhor me,

and those whom I loved have turned against me.

20 My *Ps. 102:5;[Lam. 4:8]bones stick to my skin and to my flesh,

and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

21 Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends,

for the hand of God has *ch. 1:11;Isa. 53:4touched me!

22 Why do you, like God, *[Ps. 69:26]pursue me?

Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?

23 "Oh that my words were written!

Oh that they were *Isa. 30:8inscribed in a book!

24 Oh that with an iron *Jer. 17:1pen and lead

they were engraved in the rock forever!

25 For I *ch. 30:23know that my *Isa. 43:14;44:6,24;49:7;[Gen. 48:16;Ps. 19:14;103:4;1 Thess. 1:10] Redeemer lives,

and at the last he will stand upon the *ch. 41:33earth.*19:25 Hebrew dust

26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed,

yet in*19:26 Or without my flesh I shall *Ps. 17:15;1 Cor. 13:12;1 John 3:2see God,

27 whom I shall see for myself,

and my eyes shall behold, and not *[Prov. 27:2] another.

My heart *[Ps. 73:26]faints within me!

28 If you say, ‘How we will *[See ver. 22above]pursue him!’

and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’*19:28 Many Hebrew manuscripts in me

29 be afraid of the sword,

for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,

that you may know there is *Eccles. 12:14;See Ps. 58:11a judgment."