1: Then Job answered and said, 2: How long will ye vex my soul, And break me in pieces with words? 3: These ten times have ye reproached me: Ye are not ashamed that ye deal hardly with me. 4: And be it indeed that I have erred, Mine error remaineth with myself. 5: If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, And plead against me my reproach; 6: Know now that God hath subverted me [in my cause], And hath compassed me with his net. 7: Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry for help, but there is no justice. 8: He hath walled up my way that I cannot pass, And hath set darkness in my paths. 9: He hath stripped me of my glory, And taken the crown from my head. 10: He hath broken me down on every side, and I am gone; And my hope hath he plucked up like a tree. 11: He hath also kindled his wrath against me, And he counteth me unto him as [one of] his adversaries. 12: His troops come on together, And cast up their way against me, And encamp round about my tent. 13: He hath put my brethren far from me, And mine acquaintance are wholly estranged from me. 14: My kinsfolk have failed, And my familiar friends have forgotten me. 15: They that dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger; I am an alien in their sight. 16: I call unto my servant, and he giveth me no answer, [Though] I entreat him with my mouth. 17: My breath is strange to my wife, And my supplication to the children of mine own mother. 18: Even young children despise me; If I arise, they speak against me. 19: All my familiar friends abhor me, And they whom I loved are turned against me. 20: My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, And I am escaped with the skin of my teeth. 21: Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; For the hand of God hath touched me. 22: Why do ye persecute me as God, And are not satisfied with my flesh? 23: Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! 24: That with an iron pen and lead They were graven in the rock for ever! 25: But as for me I know that my Redeemer liveth, And at last he will stand up upon the earth: 26: And after my skin, [even] this [body], is destroyed, Then without my flesh shall I see God; 27: Whom I, even I, shall see, on my side, And mine eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger. My heart is consumed within me. 28: If ye say, How we will persecute him! And that the root of the matter is found in me; 29: Be ye afraid of the sword: For wrath [bringeth] the punishments of the sword, That ye may know there is a judgment.
