1 Then Job answered and said:
2 “How long will you torment me
and break me in pieces with words?
3 ThesewGen. 31:7 ten 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 youxPs. 35:26; 38:16; 55:12 magnify yourselves against me
and make my disgrace an argument against me,
6 know then that God hasy[ch. 8:3; 34:12; Lam. 3:36] put me in the wrong
and closed his net about me.
7 Behold, Izch. 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 hasaLam. 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 hasbPs. 89:44 stripped from me my glory
and taken thecPs. 89:39; Lam. 5:16; [ch. 29:14] crown from my head.
10 He breaks me down on every side, and Idch. 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
andeSee ch. 13:24 counts me as his adversary.
12 Hisf[ch. 10:17; 25:2] troops come on together;
they havegch. 30:12 cast up their siege ramp against me
and encamp around my tent.
13 He has put myhPs. 69:8; [ch. 6:15] brothers far from me,
andi[Ps. 31:11; 88:8, 18] those who knew me are wholly estranged from me.
14 My relativesjPs. 38:11 have failed me,
my closekPs. 55:13 friends have forgotten me.
15 The guestsl[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 mymch. 2:9 wife,
and I am a stench to the children ofnch. 3:10 my own mother.
18 Even youngo[2 Kgs. 2:23] children despise me;
when I rise they talk against me.
19 All myp[Ps. 41:9; 55:13, 14] intimate friends abhor me,
and those whom I loved have turned against me.
20 MyqPs. 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 hasrch. 1:11; Isa. 53:4 touched me!
22 Why do you, like God,s[Ps. 69:26] pursue me?
Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?
23 Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they weretIsa. 30:8 inscribed in a book!
24 Oh that with an ironuJer. 17:1 pen and lead
they were engraved in the rock forever!
25 For Ivch. 30:23 know that mywIsa. 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 thexch. 41:33 earth.
26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in1Or without my flesh I shallyPs. 17:15; 1 Cor. 13:12; 1 John 3:2 see God,
27 whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and notz[Prov. 27:2] another.
My hearta[Ps. 73:26] faints within me!
28 If you say, ‘How we wills[See ver. 22 above] pursue him! ’
and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him, ’
29 be afraid of the sword,
for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
that you may know there isbEccles. 12:14; See Ps. 58:11 a judgment. ”